


Revolutionary Girl Riku

by Rikudera



Category: Kingdom Hearts, Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Bisexual Character, Bisexuality, F/F, F/M, Female Protagonist, Gen, Gender Roles, I really hope the tags are up to date now, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Novelization, POV Female Character, Polyamory, Princes & Princesses, Swords & Fencing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-02-10
Updated: 2017-10-14
Packaged: 2017-10-30 21:33:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 65,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/336401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikudera/pseuds/Rikudera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ever since she was little, Riku's dream has been to go to the outside world and become a prince. Now that she's venturing from the islands, she's determined to make her dream a reality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is a novelization of the Kingdom Hearts games from the pov of a Riku who is a girl. Contains themes and structure from both Kingdom Hearts and Revolutionary Girl Utena.
> 
> Warnings and ratings will be added/changed as I get to relevant points in the fic.

When Riku, Sora, and Kairi were younger, they would play pretend quite often. Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka would join in if they were nearby - and that was fun, too - but the most interesting things happened when it was just the three of them. Today, they were playing castles.  
   
"This island will be the castle," Riku said, gesturing with her wooden sword, "that'll be the drawbridge, the water can be the moat, and the Paopu tree can be the tower."  
   
"Is there anything in the moat?" Sora asked. Riku thought about it for a minute.  
   
"Crocodiles," she decided. Sora and Kairi looked receptive to the idea, so Riku kept going. "But they're not just _any_ crocodiles. These ones are twenty feet long! And bloody red! And... and they..."  
   
"And they shoot magic out their mouths," Kairi suggested. Riku nodded; this was a good embellishment. "And if you get hit, you fall into the moat's bubbly doom, and then _you_ turn into a crocodile, too."  
   
"Scary..." Sora commented.  
   
“ _I'm_ not afraid of crocodiles," Riku said, folding her arms.  
   
"Even if they're twenty feet long and bloody red?" Sora challenged.  
   
"So we've got the defenses," Kairi interjected smoothly, bringing their attention back to the matter at hand. Riku and Sora took her hint and dropped the potential argument. "Next step?"  
   
"Well, if there are magic-shooting crocodiles in the moat," Sora said, "then that means they're trying to keep people from finding something in the castle. Whatever it is, though, it has to be hidden at the very top of the tower."  
   
"What's in the castle?" Kairi asked. "Secret treasure? A unicorn that grants wishes?"  
   
"We did secret treasure when we played pirates last time," Sora said.  
   
"I really like unicorns," Kairi added. "They seem so pretty..."  
   
"Do unicorns grant wishes?" Riku asked, thinking about it.  
   
"Of course they do," Kairi responded. "They're magical."  
   
"Hmm, I dunno," Sora said. "Maybe Riku's right. Wasn't it genies that granted wishes?" Kairi pouted. Riku figured it was because she wanted to get the role of magical unicorn.  
   
"We can do magic animals next time," Riku said. Kairi seemed slightly pacified by that, but not completely.  
   
"Then what's going to be in the tower?" Kairi asked.  
   
"A princess," Riku grinned.  
   
"...A princess?" Sora asked.  
   
"Sure," Riku responded. "Castles have princesses in them all the time, right?" As she was talking, she bent down, picked a long blade of grass, and quickly tied the ends in a knot. "My lady," she said, handing the circle to Kairi, "your crown."  
   
"Oh, it's lovely," Kairi smiled, taking the grass crown and placing it on her head. "I'll have to add some flowers, too." She started looking around for flowers to pick.  
   
"So I guess that means you'll be the evil witch then, huh, Riku?" Sora said.  
   
"What do you mean?" Riku asked, confused for a moment.  
   
"Well, the crocodiles can shoot magic," Sora explained, "but they probably wouldn't keep a princess in a tower all by themselves. Someone has to be in charge of them, so that's why I figured you would be the witch."  
   
"And why do _I_ have to be the witch?" Riku demanded, putting her hands on her hips.  
   
"Because I'm going to be the prince," Sora said, smiling and hooking his hands behind his neck, as if it was obvious.  
   
"But _I_ want to be the prince," Riku frowned. She wanted to be a prince very, very badly, in fact, though it wasn't something she ever talked about much. Most of it she'd never told _anyone_ , but the idea of a prince was something that had _always_ appealed to her.  
   
"…But you're a girl," Sora said.  
   
"Being a prince has nothing to do with whether you're a boy or a girl!" Riku replied, feeling distinctly offended.  
   
"What makes someone a prince, then?" Kairi asked, threading flowers around her grass crown. She must've wandered back when she saw another argument brewing.  
   
"A prince," Riku said, jumping at the opportunity, "is someone really strong, and brave." She swung her wooden sword around, pretending to fight enemies. "They go around to lots of different places, and they protect everyone and beat all the bad guys." With a flourish, she tucked her sword under one arm and bowed to Kairi. "And they always," she took Kairi's hand, still bowing, and kissed it lightly, "treat a lady nicely." Kairi giggled, and Riku grinned up at her.  
  
"So gallant," Kairi said. "I think you make a very good prince, Riku." Riku let her hand go and straightened, beaming while Kairi placed her grass-and-flower crown back on her head.  
  
"I don't want to be an evil witch," Sora sighed, looking disappointed. "Or wizard, I guess. I want to save Kairi, too."  
  
"Hmm…" Kairi touched a hand to her lips in thought, "why don't you _both_ be princes, then? Then you can both rescue me." She smiled, rocking on her heels.  
   
"What would we fight against, then?" Sora asked.  
   
"There are still the crocodiles," Kairi pointed out.  
   
"Sounds good to me," Riku said, readying her wooden sword again. "What do you think, Sora?" She turned to him, then grinned again. He'd picked up his own sword by then, as well. "Think we can beat them by ourselves?"  
   
"Of course!" Sora grinned back. The argument from before had clearly been resolved in the best of ways. "There's nothing you and me can't do!"


	2. Destiny Islands, part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is a competition.

Riku sighed and adjusted the construction material over her shoulder. Really, it was just ridiculous by now. She was definitely going to make a point of this the next time she saw the others. She started walking around the island beach, looking for them. Today was the perfect day to work on their project. She was wearing her favorite outfit for running around, which was a sleeveless yellow-and-black shirt, short blue shorts, and knee-high black boots that helped keep out the water. She also had short black leather gloves to help with gripping and working, but kept her silver hair hanging down to her shoulders.

Now, where were those two hiding?

“Does this mean I’m the only one working on the raft?” she called. Down by the water, two teens turned to look at her. Kairi waved, smiling. Sora evidenced by the sand still stuck to his clothes and the fact that he was still sitting down, had been taking a nap. Sora and Kairi were wearing similar clothes, with Kairi in a purple skirt-over-shorts combo and white tank top and Sora in a red jumpsuit that went to his knees, with a white, short-sleeved, hooded jacket and fingerless white gloves. “You guys  _do_  wanna finish that raft, right?”

“Of course!” Sora said, standing up. “I wanna see the world Kairi came from, and all the other ones, too!”

“Catch, then,” Riku replied, tossing the lumber on her shoulder over to Sora. “Less napping, more working.”

“Hey!” Sora protested, standing back up and brushing the sand off his clothes again. Kairi giggled.

“And you’re just as lazy as he is, Kairi,” Riku teased, leaning her face closer to the redhead’s and grinning.

“You might be right about that,” Kairi responded, looking completely unashamed of herself, as usual. “Alright, we can all work on the raft together!” Then, she smiled slyly at both Riku and Sora. “I’ll race you two there.”

“Are you kidding?” Riku said, but let her gaze slide over to Sora all the same.

“Huh?” Sora said, but caught Riku’s glance in return.

“Three.. two… one… go!” Kairi shouted, and they were off running.

“So,” Sora said, once they were at the door separating the main beach from the inlet, “who won?”

“Ooh, I don’t know…” Kairi hedged.

“She just doesn’t wanna say that I won  _again_ ,” Riku smirked, the teasing directed at Sora this time.

“Hey, I win plenty of times!” Sora huffed. “Isn’t that right Kairi?”

“Mmm,” Kairi touched a finger to her lips in thought, “I think this round was really too close to tell.”

“A rematch, then?” Riku immediately suggested.

“You’re-” Sora started, turning to face Riku.

“-gonna have to wait until the supplies are gathered before you two have a rematch,” Kairi finished. Sora looked back at Kairi. “For the raft, remember?”

“Yeah, I hear you,” Sora said. “Okay, what do we need to get?”

“ _I’ve_  spent most of the morning working,” Riku corrected. “It’s  _your_  turn to gather the supplies. I’ll be waiting on the Paopu island for that rematch when you’re done.” She felt uneasy, for some reason, but she didn’t want to show it in front of Sora and Kairi, so Riku turned and walked briskly to the small island with the Paopu tree. She hopped up and sat on the sideways trunk, staring out at the ocean and thinking about how things had been lately.

The three of them had been together forever, it seemed. Of course, Riku and Sora had known each other longer, but Kairi’s arrival was a good thing, too, and balanced everything out nicely. So why had Riku gotten upset before? She’d always thrived on competition because it was a way to prove herself and her intentions, but lately, it felt like the rules had been changing. How well-equipped was Riku to deal with this? She didn’t know exactly what losing this competition meant, only that losing was something she couldn’t afford to do.

It didn’t matter to Riku what other people said about her, as long as Sora and Kairi stayed on her side. Sometimes, a few kids got uncomfortable with Riku’s tendency to treat other girls as if they were ladies to be doted upon, but Kairi would always accept Riku’s flirtations as if Riku was the same as any other potential suitor. Sometimes Riku’s fighting prowess would be questioned by some ignorant kid, but Riku had practiced until she was the strongest on the island, and Sora would always be ready to voice his support of Riku while she proved it. Riku knew that things would change once the three of them got to the outside world, but as to what sort of change it would be…

“Ha, I win!” Sora shouted triumphantly. Riku turned to see what was going on over on the beach.

“I can’t believe I lost,” Tidus groused. Apparently, Sora had just finished sparring with Tidus. It looked like Wakka and Selphie had been watching them, too. Had Sora finished gathering supplies for the raft yet, or was he just goofing around again? He still owed her for the tie earlier.

“Hey, Sora,” Riku called, and everyone on the beach turned to look at her. “If you want a real fight, then come over here!”

“Ooh, Riku’s extra determined today~” Selphie said, looking pleased, though it was always debatable to Riku what that girl  _actually_  had on her mind half the time. Probably something sappy, though to be fair, she wasn’t far from the truth in this particular case. Whenever Riku and Sora sparred with each other, they always put their full enthusiasm into it, and it was usually a sort of flirtation in itself.

“You’re on!” Sora called back, grinning as he started running to the little island Riku was on.

“What am I, chopped liver?” Tidus asked.

“The girl’s not joking, man,” Wakka laughed. “She beat us three-against-one last time, ya?”

“Don’t remind me…” Tidus slumped. But Sora had gotten to the Paopu island, so Riku focused all her attention on him.

“Ready for that rematch?” Riku asked, sliding into her battle stance with her wooden sword in her hand and a smirk on her face.

“This one decides it!” Sora replied, readying his wooden sword as well. With a lunge, Riku brought her sword forward.

A couple minutes later, a thoroughly soaked Sora was climbing the ladder back to the Paopu island, and a thoroughly pleased Riku was grinning down at him.

“Looks like I win this round,” Riku said.

“Now the score’s…” Sora groaned and shook the water out of his hair, which bounced back to its regular, spiked shape, “I don’t even remember what the score was yesterday. It’s zero to one now, okay?”

“That’s fine,” Riku replied, still grinning. “That’s just more incentive for me to get it back up to a higher number soon, anyway.”

“Give me a few minutes to dry off first, at least.” Sora was trying to squeeze water out of his jacket. “Besides, I still need to get the rest of that stuff for Kairi.” Riku felt her smile change into something slightly different for a moment, but she made sure a smile was right back on her face a moment later. Sora, the oblivious guy that he was, was still paying attention to his jacket.

“Don’t tell me you’re giving up already,” Riku said, crossing her arms. Sora put his jacket back on and looked at her.

“Of course not!” he protested, readying his sword again. “One more round!” That was more like it.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

By the time Riku was watching the sunset that evening with Sora and Kairi, she was in a good mood again. The running score with Sora was 8-2 - in Riku’s favor, of course, with Sora gaining his first win only after a marathon of five matches in a row - and the three of them actually finished the last of the construction on the raft. Tomorrow would be gathering provisions, and then… they could finally leave.

“Kairi’s home is out there, right?” Sora asked. “But how far could a raft take us?”

“If we have to, we’ll think of something else,” Riku replied, staring out at the sinking sun. She’d spent so long wanting to leave that doubt was simply not an option. One way or another, she would get to worlds outside these islands.

“So suppose you get to another world,” Kairi said, “what would you do once you got there?” That question, however, caused Riku to pause, even if it was momentary.

“I guess I haven’t really thought about it,” Riku started. There were the ideas of adventure and exploration, with Sora and Kairi following her lead, but Riku always figured she’d sort out the details once she was actually  _there_. “But it’s just that I’ve always wondered about other worlds, and why we ended up on this one. We could just as easily have ended up somewhere else, right?”

“I don’t really get it,” Sora said. He really was hopeless sometimes.

“That’s why we need to find out,” Riku insisted. “If we stay here, then it’ll always be the same stuff. Nothing changes.” Riku couldn’t  _stand_  the thought of staying like this for the rest of her life. “We need to go.”

“You’ve done a lot of thinking lately, haven’t you, Riku?” Kairi asked softly, with just the faintest hint of somberness. At least  _one_  of Riku’s friends was paying attention.

“It’s thanks to you, really,” Riku responded, turning her head to give Kairi a smile. ”I wouldn’t have thought about any of this if you hadn’t shown up here.” Kairi was smiling back at her, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “So thanks, Kairi.” Kairi laughed, after a small moment of hesitation. Sora, who’d lain on the tree’s trunk a bit ago and was looking at the tree instead of either Riku or Kairi, probably had no idea what was going on.

“You’re welcome,” Kairi responded, though it was slightly strained. It seemed she was less willing to play along with Riku when it came to this subject. Riku turned her head away from Kairi to look back at the ocean again. The three of them spent the next few minutes in silence.

A horrible thought occurred to Riku: had Kairi just been playing along by humoring Riku this whole time? Was it all part of a joke to her? Even  _Riku_  didn’t know, sometimes, if she was joking or not, but it would be a lie to say that she was  _never_  serious about it.

Or maybe Riku was jumping to conclusions. Kairi was probably just uncomfortable because of what Riku had actually said, rather than how she’d said it. Maybe Kairi knew, after all, that Riku had wanted to leave the islands even  _before_  Kairi had arrived. Kairi wasn’t as hopelessly dense as Sora could be sometimes; perhaps she suspected that her arrival had just solidified things in Riku’s mind.

It was the truth, after all. Riku had wanted to leave the islands ever since she could remember, and she’d heard it had been done by someone else once before, but she was never told that  _she_  could until the arrival of the Prince.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

_Riku had been playing with Sora on the small island when she first saw the stranger. They were almost done for the day, waiting for a parent to come pick them up and take them back to the main island, when she saw him standing on the beach. Sora had gone on ahead to the dock, but Riku had slowed, walking up to the man in curiosity._

_He was exactly like a prince, Riku thought._

_Of course, Riku had never seen an actual prince before, but she was positive that this was what a prince looked like. Many years later, when Riku was working on the raft with Sora and Kairi, she’d long forgotten the prince’s face, voice, and appearance; the most memorable thing about the prince had been his demeanor, the way he carried himself. He was serious, as if he was trying to shoulder a very heavy burden, but at the same time, he seemed understanding and approachable. And he was from the **outside**._

_When Riku asked him if he was from the outside world, he’d seemed slightly amused but hadn’t denied it. He really seemed to understand her desire to leave the islands, and her reasons for wanting to become stronger. The prince seemed really strong - and Riku was sure that the kid who’d left the islands before was strong now, too - so Riku thought that if **she**  got to experience the outside world that she would be strong as well. Then, she could always be able to protect everyone and keep them safe._

_The prince must have agreed with Riku because he confirmed that there was a bigger world out there, beyond the islands. He promised her that he would help her become a prince like him, as long as she stayed dedicated to her goals. The weapon he called to his hand was some sort of magical blade, and he when she closed her hand around the grip he presented to her, it was warm, and she somehow knew that it felt alive because it belonged to the prince. Riku agreed to keep everything a secret because she didn’t want the magic to go away._

Now that Riku was finally going to reach the outside world, she was more determined than ever that she was finally going to become a prince. Even if Sora or Kairi were unsure about some things, all Riku needed to do was lead them properly, and then they would understand.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After the sun had set, Riku started heading back to the boats with Sora and Kairi. Kairi had gone on ahead - was she  _still_  uncomfortable from their earlier conversation? - so Riku quickly jumped to stand on the trunk of the tree, picked a fruit, then jumped back down. It was mostly impulse, really, though somewhere in the back of her mind, Riku knew she had to do  _something_  to keep everything from staying the same.

“Hey, Sora.” The brunet turned around, and Riku tossed him the fruit.

“A Paopu fruit?” Sora asked, looking at Riku for an explanation. She couldn’t tell if he was embarrassed, or if he was just confused.

“They say that if two people share one,” Riku replied, “their destinies will be intertwined; they’ll be a part of each other’s lives no matter what.” Sora was just standing there, so Riku kept walking past him to the dock. “Don’t you think you should have one before we leave?”

“Riku, what are you talking…?” Riku turned around to face Sora, though she kept walking backwards. Was that a blush? But all he was  _doing_  was staring. Just how obvious did Riku need to be? This was pushing oblivious and moving into willful ignorance.

“I know you want to try it,” Riku teased, trying one more time for an  _actual_  response. Sora just gave her that same confused look. Did that mean he was okay with things staying the same?

Riku turned back around and kept walking. She laughed, though it was mostly reflex. When she glanced back over her shoulder, Sora was throwing the fruit off the bridge, into the ocean. Riku hurried to catch up with Kairi.


	3. Destiny Islands, part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Riku leaves home.

Just like last time, the interesting events of Riku’s last day on Destiny Islands started with a race. Riku and Sora were debating what to name the raft, and Kairi suggested they settle it with a race. Of course, both Riku and Sora had the tendency to up the stakes when they could get away with it.

“If I win,” Sora said, “then I get to be Captain on the raft.” Riku thought that being Captain of the raft would be fun, but as far as things to race for went, Sora had come up with more interesting ideas than this.

“And if  _I_  win,” she countered, grinning, “then I get to share a Paopu with Kairi.” The look on Sora’s face was priceless.

“Wait, are you serious?” Riku hoped that Sora hadn’t strained a muscle trying to think that hard. “I thought-“

“First one to tag the star and back wins!” Kairi called. Riku looked over to her.

“You didn’t do anything with the one from yesterday, did you,” Riku said, less amused, though she already knew the answer. “So the winner gets to share a Paopu with Kairi.” She glanced back at Sora for a moment; with the face he was making, she felt a little sorry for him, so she grinned again. “Deal?” Before Sora managed to reply, however, Kairi started the countdown for the race.

“Three… Two…” Riku got ready to run. “One… Go!”

As it went in most of their competitions, Riku won. She was ready to tease Sora about it, until she saw the look on his face. He actually looked _genuinely_ upset about it.

“Hey, Sora,” Riku said, though she still couldn’t help smiling a little, “take it easy, okay?” He looked back at her. “It was just a joke.” Sora still looked skeptical, and it was such an out-of-place expression that this time, Riku  _did_  laugh. “Don’t take it so seriously.” She smiled slyly. “Besides, it’s not fair if we both knew I was gonna win.” Sora huffed at that last comment, but at least it was his normal annoyance.

“Yeah, well, I’ll beat you next time,” Sora answered, crossing his arms.

“Today’s your last chance, so you better not drag your feet about it,” Riku reminded him, still smiling. Sora looked confused for a moment. “We’re leaving tomorrow on the raft, remember?” Honestly, Sora could be so slow sometimes.

“…Oh, right.” Sora laughed, albeit a bit sheepishly, and hooked his hands behind his neck. By this time, Kairi had walked up to Riku and Sora again.

“So what’s the raft named?” Kairi asked.

“The Highwind,” Riku said, “because we’ll be sailing the high seas - swift as the wind - to another world.” She was pleased with the name she’d come up with.

“You should carve it into the mast,” Kairi said. “We should put our names, too.” Riku nodded.

“That’s a good idea, Kairi.” Riku considered what other finishing touches they would need. “I’ll check the structural integrity one last time, too.” She’d been the one to do most of the building, after all.

“Then that means you should gather the supplies, Sora,” Kairi said. Sora nodded. “We need to take enough with us to last as far as the raft; you’re sure that’ll be enough, Riku?”

“I’m positive,” Riku replied. Their world was small; the ocean surrounding it wouldn’t be much bigger. Once they got to another world, they could plan as they went.

“…Okay”, the redhead declared. “Once we do the last checks and have all the supplies, we’ll put the names on.” With that, they split up.

Riku went down to where the raft was and checked over her knots one last time. Sora left to go look for provisions. Kairi hung around the inlet with Riku, working on some fiddly little thing. After Riku was completely satisfied with the seaworthiness of the raft, she went over to Kairi.

“What are you making?”

“It’s a thalassa charm,” Kairi responded, “for good luck and a safe voyage.” Riku quickly lost interest; she’d always believed in making her own luck. Just sitting around, dependent on something else to do things  _for_ you, never got anything done.

“Uh huh. I’m gonna go look for a good carving rock.”

“…Alright,” Kairi responded. Riku glanced over at the redhead; it seemed she had her attention focused mostly on her project. Riku’d always been too active to find super-girly stuff like that very interesting, anyway, so it was just as well.

“I finished doing the checks on the raft, so you can sit down, if you want.”

“…Thanks, Riku.”

“No problem.” Riku left to find a good rock.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After Sora came back with the provisions, which Kairi stashed in the ‘supply’ bag, the three of them carved their names into the mast of the raft. Kairi insisted that Riku write the name  _Highwind_  since it was her idea, at which Sora pouted again.

“We can always race again,” Riku suggested. “Just for fun?” That, at least, seemed to put Sora back in his usual good mood.

“You’re on!” Sora grinned, and the two of them lined up at the start again. After a few more races, Sora actually managed to win.

“Since you beat me for once,” Riku said, as the two of them were catching their breaths, “you can have this.” She dug in her pocket and pulled out a small, roundish stone. It was mostly grey and white, but it had a shockingly blue streak through the middle that’d caught her eye when she saw it. It had actually reminded her of Sora, so Riku thought she should give it to him before they left, “I found this while I was looking for the carving rock.” Sora took the stone and looked at it for a moment.

“It’s kinda pretty,” he said.

“I thought so, too.”

“Thanks, Riku,” Sora grinned.

“No problem,” Riku smiled back. She wondered, for a moment, what else should be done before the three of them left. Some of those things should be done by herself, but… when to do it? It was almost sunset now. Later tonight? “I think I’m gonna head back a little early tonight,” she added.

“How come?”

“Last minute things, I guess.”

“Sure.”

“See you tomorrow.”

“See you.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

As soon as she figured everyone else was back on the main island, Riku tucked her wooden sword in her belt, hopped right back in her boat, and rowed back to the play island. The lack of other boats on the dock confirmed this, so Riku didn’t bother wasting time feigning her destination. The cave next to the waterfall - the Secret Place - seemed the same as always, but only at first. There were the drawings on the walls, the wind whistling through a hole in the roof, and the thing at the very back.

The door.

It was wooden and oval, and fit in with the rock seamlessly. There was a thin band of gold set a little into the edge, and in the very center was a giant, golden, glowing keyhole. Riku went up to the door slowly, and placed her hand on the wood. What should she do about it? Sora and Kairi had never said anything to her about seeing the keyhole themselves; it probably meant that Riku was the only one who knew it was there. But how did it work?

“This world has been connected.” Riku whipped her head around.

“What?” There was a person there, slightly hunched over, in a long, brown robe. Riku couldn’t see the person’s face because the hood on the robe was covering it, but from the deepness in the voice, she guessed it was a man. He was from the outside world, wasn’t he?

“Soon, the darkness will overtake this world,” the man responded. “But you have the power to open the door, don’t you?”

“What do you mean?” Riku asked. How did he know about the door?

“I came to see the keyhole. This world is very small, isn’t it? Like a prison.”

“Yeah,” Riku agreed. Though it hadn’t been in the same words, she’d thought something similar for a long time. This man seemed to understand exactly what was going on; Riku needed to find out more. “What did you mean, about the darkness overtaking this world?” If something was happening to the islands, then Riku needed to find Sora and Kairi; the three of them needed to leave on the raft  _tonight_.

“Before the night is over, this world will be completely eclipsed in darkness.” The man sounded very sure about that. “It’s nothing to fear, though.”

“I’m not afraid,” Riku replied, staring back defiantly at where she guessed the face was inside the hood. It was important, for some reason, that she make sure the man got the right impression about her. “But I need to find my friends, so we can leave.”

“The darkness can be an ally, for those who are strong enough,” the man continued. “It will not be possible, however, to leave this island by conventional means.” Did he mean something like the raft? “The only way you can leave is if you open the door and accept the darkness within. Then, no matter what happens to these islands, the darkness will have no power over you, and you may go wherever you wish.” Riku turned to look back at the door. This time, when she put her hand on it, she could feel the darkness on the other side trying to push through. For a split second, she flinched, but then she reminded herself that she wasn’t afraid and placed her hand more firmly on the door.

“You can feel the darkness, can’t you?” the man asked. Riku nodded. “Let it free, keep your heart strong, and you can grasp its power for your own.” Riku’s hand felt like her own heartbeat was pulsing in time with whatever was on the other side of the door.

Being able to see the keyhole meant that Riku could open the door. But should she be here, if she needed to go find Sora and Kairi? She wasn’t afraid, so why was she hesitating?

“Take a look around,” the man continued. “In this tiny place, nothing changes.” Riku turned to look back at him, as well as the rest of the cave. “Staying in such a stagnant world will only cause things to continue as they are.” When she was little, Riku had drawn on the walls of this cave with Sora and Kairi. “You have the potential to be so much more.” It had always been just a cave to Sora and Kairi, though; Riku knew that the  _door_  was what had made it a Secret Place. “The only thing you need to do is use the power that was given to you.”

“The power that was given to me?” Riku asked, eyes widening as she focused on the unseen face within the hood again. That man couldn’t possibly be talking about-

“You would not be able to see the keyhole if that was not the case.”

“I…” He  _was_  talking about that, wasn’t he? Riku had no idea what to say, she was so shocked. She had never talked about that to  _anyone_. If the man was knowledgeable about  _that_ , then he was probably knowledgeable about the other things he’d said, as well. But she still needed to be looking for Sora and Kairi. Who knew what would happen once the door was opened? “I need to find my friends first… We agreed that we would all stick together.” Riku would be alright if the darkness came, but she couldn’t leave her friends defenseless; they needed her, didn’t they?

“Are you sure?” the man asked.

“…What do you mean?” Riku and Sora and Kairi would all-

“Are you sure that you will remain together if you do not act right now?” The man seemed to pass his gaze around the cave once more. Riku tried to follow where he was looking, but she didn’t really know what he was talking about.

“Of course we’ll stay tog-” And then Riku saw what he was looking at, and she gasped aloud. That particular drawing had a picture of two people, and a recent addition added a Paopu, but Riku wasn’t in the picture.

That wasn’t the way things were supposed to go. That wasn’t what she’d  _meant_  when she’d tried to get things to change. She hadn’t wanted things to stay the same, but this was all  _wrong_. She had to do something.

“If I want things to change,” Riku said, voice much more calm than she felt, “the way that  _I_  want, then I have to do something myself, don’t I?”

“The only way to obtain the power to change the world the way you see fit is to open the door,” the man replied, just as calmly. “You must act now.”

“What do I have to do?”

“It’s quite easy. Simply use the power you were given to open the door. Accept the power of the darkness within.”

“Alright.” Riku took a step back from the door and thought  _open_. There was a flash - of what, Riku couldn’t tell, but it hummed warm in her hand for a moment, until a soft  _click_  - and then a rush of cold air swept from the door and enveloped her. It gathered around her, and she could feel the pulsing much stronger now. She breathed it in, and it spread through her lungs, into her bones and muscles and blood vessels, then into her heart. It was a strange, heady feeling, dizzying and disorienting and exhilarating all at once. She wasn’t sure how long this went on, but she was pulled out of it by a girl’s voice.

“Riku!” Riku blinked her eyes open.

“Kairi,” Riku smiled. “We can go to the outside world now.”

“What’s going on?” Kairi asked, gaze darting from Riku, to the hooded man, to the door. She looked scared. “What did you do?” Riku noticed that she still had a weapon in her hands - though it seemed different, somehow, than the one from before - so she dismissed it and let it disappear. It would come back if she called it again.

“It’s okay, Kairi,” Riku reassured her friend. “I’ve got everything under control, so you don’t need to be scared. Just let me take care of things, okay? Then everything will turn out how we want it to.”

“Riku, something’s wrong with the islands!” Kairi insisted. “What happened? Who is that?” Riku wasn’t worried by Kairi’s hesitation; she’d hesitated briefly herself, only a few moments ago, but that was only because she hadn’t known how exciting this all was. Riku felt like she could do  _anything_  right now. The fact that the islands were being destroyed, just as that strange man had predicted, seemed relatively unimportant right now.

“Just stay here, okay?” Riku grinned back at the redhead. “I’ll go get Sora, and then we can all leave together!” Then she ran out of the cave to go look for Sora.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Riku waited for Sora at the Paopu island. When the brunet got to the play island, he would be able to see her clearly if she stayed here. It was strange, but while Riku partially realized that she should be upset at watching bits of the islands detach from themselves and collect into the black-and-red dull glow of a dying star, she felt like laughing.

“Riku!” She turned, and saw Sora running up to her.

“The door has opened, Sora!” Riku said, yelling over the storm that was engulfing the islands. “We can go to the outside world now!” Sora looked confused and skeptical, like he had earlier today.

“Where’s Kairi?” Sora asked. “She’s not with you?”

“Kairi’s coming with us,” Riku responded. It felt like her veins were on fire, and she was still lightheaded, but she needed to explain to Sora what they were going to do. “Once go through, we might not be able to come back, but we can’t let fear stop us!” If Sora was nervous, then that was fine because Riku could take care of him, too. “I’m not afraid of the darkness!” Then, Riku reached out her hand for Sora to take. “Sora!”

If Sora would only  _pay attention_  for once and reach back, then Riku could take them through the darkness to where Kairi was, and then the three of them could go through the door to another world. Then, everything would be how it was supposed to be. Riku could feel the distant sensations of the dark wind whipping around them, and she could see Sora straining to grab her hand, but her pulse was thumping so loudly in her ears that it seemed like it was all happening in slow-motion.

Then, the darkness surrounded Riku again, and when it cleared, Sora was gone. She didn’t see Kairi, either, though it seemed the hooded man was there once again.

“What was…” Riku looked around; most of the islands were gone by now. “Where are Sora and Kairi?” She turned back to the man for an explanation. Her head still felt strange…

“Those two went on ahead before I was able to direct them properly,” the man responded. “I am uncertain of their whereabouts currently, but it will not be difficult to find them, if that is what you desire.” …Of course Riku wanted to meet up with Sora and Kairi as soon as possible. “You must depart soon, as well,” he added. “This world will not last much longer.”

“Were you waiting for me to leave?” Riku asked. The man nodded. “I was here, with Sora, and then…” She and Sora had been reaching for each other’s hands, but… Riku couldn’t remember what had happened immediately after that, only that the darkness had surrounded her again.

“You unconsciously attempted to create a portal,” the man explained. “Your enthusiasm is to be admired, but it seems you’ll need a bit more practice before you can complete one that is fully functional.”

“Right…” Whatever Riku had done, it seemed like it had used up a good deal of her energy. It was hard to concentrate on what the man was saying over the howling of the wind.

“I will make a portal for you this time,” the man added. “Are you ready to leave?”

“Yeah.” Being reminded of that gave Riku some of her energy back. She was  _finally_  going to the outside world. Now, things would start happening.

The man raised his hand, and in the direction he pointed, right in front of Riku, there appeared a swirling, dark shape. With a pleased nod of appreciation back, Riku stepped through, leaving Destiny Islands and entering into another world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Question: If Riku is our Utena, and we've already heard about Dios, our other prince-in-training, and our Rose Bride (our Anthy will be later), does this mean we've now also been introduced to the Akio of this fic? Or is that just a bad voice-actor pun?


	4. Hollow Bastion, part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which introductions are made.

When Riku came to, the first thing she heard was the sound of rushing water. Going through the portal had been a bit disorienting, but Riku didn’t feel like she’d gone unconscious for all that long. She had ended up lying on the ground, so she pushed herself up and tried to make sense of where she was.

This place really  _was_  another world. All around the valley Riku had found herself in was a giant waterfall, but the water was flowing up, rather than down. The islands had been… but Riku didn’t have the luxury to focus on that right now. She had to find Sora and Kairi. Riku looked around, but she couldn’t see either of her friends anywhere nearby.

“Sora! Kairi!” Shouting didn’t get Riku any results; Sora and Kairi just weren’t here. Had they really gotten separated like the hooded man had said? Sora hadn’t grabbed onto her hand, and had been presumably blown away somewhere, and Kairi must have left the islands through a different way, as well. They’d both left before Riku had; hopefully, they’d managed to stick together.

Until Riku was able to meet up with Sora and Kairi, she figured that she’d better find out where she was. Looking around, she was at the base of some strange, giant stone staircase, but it seemed like there were so many places where the stone was missing that pieces of the staircase were just floating in midair. Surrounding the stones was the waterfall, but at the top of the stairs, in the distance, there was some sort of building. Was it a castle?

And by the top of the stairs, was someone there? Whoever it was seemed to have noticed Riku, so Riku decided to go up there and see if she could find out some things about this world.

“So you’ve arrived successfully.” The witch said, once Riku arrived at the top of the stairs. She was… not human. She was shaped like a woman, but everything about her seemed stretched-out, from her tall, thin body to her long face and spindly fingers. Her skin was a shade of light green, and on the top of her head were two long, jet-black curls of horns that stuck up into the air. She was wearing a robe in black and purple, and was armed with some sort of staff with a large, golden orb at the top. Whatever she was, Riku was sure that she was a witch.

“Were you expecting me?” Riku asked. The witch raised an eyebrow.

“My associate brought you here, did he not?” Was she working with the hooded man? Riku felt so much more wary of this woman than she did of the hooded man. “I am Maleficent. What is your name, child?” Riku didn’t really appreciate being called a child, but something in the glint of the witch’s eyes made her feel like she should respond.

“…Riku.” Maleficent smiled and inclined her head in acknowledgment. Seeing her smile did not ease Riku’s wariness.

“My associate also said that you would be needing accommodations for a while,” Maleficent continued. “I’ve had a room prepared for you, so follow me.”

“Is he here?” Riku asked, her mind more on trying to figure out the connection between the hooded man and the witch than where she would sleep for the night. Maleficent nodded. Riku didn’t really like the idea of following Maleficent, but if the hooded man had brought Riku here, then staying just for the night was probably okay. There were other things to think about, though, so Riku decided that she should make her intentions clear, so that Maleficent wouldn’t assume the wrong thing. “I can’t stay long,” she continued. “I need to look for my friends.”

“Well, you may stay here until you’ve found them.” Maleficent began walking to some sort of mechanical gondola, so Riku followed her. “I will even assist you in your search, if you like.”

“…Really?” Riku got on the gondola as well, but she still felt uneasy. What was the catch? “Why?”

“There’s no need to worry, child,” Maleficent smiled again, looking amused. The gondola began its ascent towards the castle. “You came highly recommended, after all. There are a few tasks I have that could benefit from the help of a resourceful girl such as yourself.” Riku had been… recommended? What had the hooded man said about her to Maleficent? “Simply assist me in a task or two that I need completed, and I will be happy to help you find your friends.” This actually made Riku feel a little better; she didn’t really like the idea of having to owe this woman something.

“What kind of tasks?” Riku asked. By now, the gondola had arrived at the castle. She craned her head up to look at the castle, now that it was closer. It was almost too big to believe. It seemed like there were more mechanical contraptions everywhere, the crank of gears turning, and multicolored steam billowing from various pipes. On the front of the castle was a large emblem that looked like it was a little newer than the rest of the machinery, though it was still fairly old. The emblem was bronze-colored, in a shape resembling a giant heart, though instead of a single point at the bottom, it had three, the two points on the sides curling up, and a thorny vine design crisscrossed the heart in a large X. Riku wondered what the emblem represented, but now was not the time to ask.

“We can discuss the details later,” Maleficent answered easily. Riku looked back from the castle to the witch. “You’re probably tired from traveling all the way here, are you not?” Now that she mentioned it, the tired feeling Riku had gotten from going through the portal made itself apparent again.

“…A little,” Riku admitted.

“I’ll show you to your room, then. We can discuss your situation further after you’ve gotten some rest.”

“Alright.” Riku followed Maleficent through the large gates of the castle, up a few sets of stairs and mechanical lifts, until they reached a relatively nondescript hall. There was a plush, emerald green carpet lining the hall, and when Riku opened the door to the room Maleficent indicated, the floor had the same carpet as well. There was a bed, a window looking out on the front side of the castle, a desk with a chair, and four bookshelves that were completely filled.

It was a much fancier room than Riku had ever lived in. She stepped in, first running a hand along the bookshelves, then looking briefly out the window. It was almost  _too_  nice.

“Do you like it?” Maleficent asked. “There’s a library downstairs as well, if the books interest you.” Riku knew she should refuse this room; she didn’t want to be a charity case, and she still didn’t know what kind of things Maleficent would be expecting her to do in exchange for accommodations.

“I’m not going to stay long,” Riku repeated. “I’ll pay you back for letting me sleep here tonight, but then I need to go look for my friends.”

“As I said before,” Maleficent responded,” we can discuss a mutually beneficial agreement after you’ve had some rest, but I must insist you allow me to help you out at least for tonight.” Riku frowned in response. She still felt uneasy being in this witch’s debt.

“I really shouldn’t… I need to pay you back.”

“…If you are so adamant about that, then I will factor it into our discussion tomorrow,” Maleficent replied, turning to exit the room. “In the meantime, rest and recover your strength.” With that, she left, closing the door behind her. Riku took another look around the room.

She hadn’t meant to get separated from Sora and Kairi. Then again, what had happened to the islands hadn’t been part of the plan, either. Riku couldn’t worry about that, though; she had to stay on her feet and keep moving forward. What she needed to do was deal with Maleficent, and then start looking for Sora and Kairi. She didn’t trust Maleficent at all - and she wasn’t quite sure why the hooded man had sent her here, of all places - but right now, a bed was a bed. Hopefully, whatever she had to do to pay Maleficent back wouldn’t be too bad.

Riku really  _was_  tired. Her first encounter with the darkness had filled her with so much energy that she felt she could do anything, but dealing with the portal had drained all that excess energy right back out of her. Maybe it would take some getting used to, but… Riku still needed to get back in touch with Sora and Kairi. She could deal with the darkness until then, and once she was reunited with her friends, she could make sure everything went the way it was supposed to go.

Riku made sure the door to the bedroom was locked, then walked over to the bed. She paused only to take off her boots and collapsed on top of the covers, still fully clothed. She was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Riku awoke the next morning feeling considerably better. Thoughts of Sora and Kairi, and of the islands, still weighed on her mind, but after some solid rest and a quick shower in the bedroom’s adjoining bathroom, her body at least felt refreshed. She put back on her clothes from the day before and left the bedroom, aiming to find either Maleficent or breakfast – in no specific order – without getting lost. Riku decided that once she paid Maleficent back for the room, she would leave the castle to track down Sora and Kairi. Maybe the hooded man was still around here somewhere; Riku could ask him for more information, as well as an explanation for Maleficent.

Then, as Riku was walking down one of the corridors, she saw them.

She didn’t know what they were, only that they were small and black, with golden eyes and twitching antennae. There were three of them, and they shuffled for a few seconds before seeming to notice her, sinking into black puddles that moved swiftly toward her. Riku took a step back and called her weapon back to her hand. When the things rose up out of the puddles again, one of them swiped at her with its claws. Riku blocked it and pushed it back with her sword, but it just leaped mindlessly forward again. Riku swung at it, not thinking much more than  _kill it kill it kill it_  herself, and hit it a few times. It reeled back, collapsing into a puff of black smoke. By then, the other two had sunk into puddles again, circling around her. Riku spun quickly, then just smacked them a few more times each, at which point they also burst and dissolved into smoke.

“Very well done.”

Riku spun around again to face the person who’d spoken, the tension from her fight still present. She relaxed, however, when she saw who it was.

“…Oh, it’s you,” she said, looking back at the hooded man and dismissing her sword from her hand. Then, “What  _were_  those things?”

“The Heartless,” the hooded man responded, walking closer to her, now that the threat of those black monsters was gone. “Creatures born from the darkness of the heart.” The darkness of the heart? “The Heartless dwell in many worlds, seeking out hearts to consume.”

“When you say darkness of the heart…” Riku started, starting to feel a little wary, “…what do you mean?”

“When a heart becomes completely consumed by darkness, it transforms into a Heartless. The ones you just saw were Shadows, though there are many different kinds of Heartless.” Riku swallowed uncomfortably. On the night the islands were destroyed, she had accepted the darkness.

“If I use the darkness,” Riku asked, “will that happen to me, too?” The thought of becoming something like those creatures seemed like… the worst thing that could happen.

“Not if you keep your heart strong,” the hooded man replied. “The Heartless seek out all hearts, but you vanquished those ones easily enough, did you not?” It  _was_  true, once Riku thought about it; she’d been shocked at their appearance, but she had also come out of the battle unscathed. “All you need to do is train to become stronger. You’ll meet more challenges such as this on various worlds, but I have confidence that you will meet those challenges effectively.” Riku had spent a lot of time on the islands working to become the strongest. It was hard sometimes, especially when people underestimated her, but Riku had just worked harder until she was confident in her abilities. The hooded man’s explanation of things so far had made sense, so Riku decided that she would ask him a question that had been on her mind since she met him.

“You seem to know a lot about things like that,” Riku said. “Who are you, exactly? Why did you bring me here to this castle?” And why did he always seem to have an explanation for whatever question Riku might decide to ask?

“My apologies for not introducing myself properly until now,” the man responded, bowing slightly. “My name is Ansem, and I consider myself to be something of a seeker of knowledge. You’ll have to excuse the appearance, however; I’ve been ill for quite some time, and it’s best for my health if I remain like this until I’m well again.” Riku nodded slowly. That explained why he was in that featureless, hooded robe, though she wondered what he was ill with. “And you are… Miss Riku was the name I believe your red-haired friend called you?” Riku was not used to being called ‘Miss’, nor was she used to being bowed to as if she were a lady in the kinds of games she used to play with Sora and Kairi. She’d always wanted to be a prince, and being treated more like a princess made her a bit uncomfortable.

“Um… just Riku is fine,” she answered, looking aside. Ansem nodded in return and straightened up again, or as upright as he was able to.

“Very well,” he responded, though he sounded slightly amused, “Riku it is. I took an immediate interest in your situation, you see; you have a very special gift, and I would hate to see it go to waste. There are many resources at this castle that could help you develop your talents.” Riku thought for another moment about the thing Ansem had called her ‘gift’ and frowned again.

“I don’t think it’s working,” she admitted, feeling a little embarrassed.

“…Oh?”

“The sword  _feels_  like it’s mine, but it’s… different from before.” When Riku had opened the door, the blade she’d held had felt warmer in her hands. In her encounter with the Prince, when she was young,  _his_  blade had the same feeling to it, as well. She called her own blade back to her hand, examining it closely. It was a deep maroon color, in the shape of an outstretched dragon’s wing, and on the guard was a catlike, blue eye. Riku hadn’t really gotten a good look at the shape of the blade right before she’d opened the door on the islands, but she was pretty sure that it looked different. She dismissed her sword again and looked back up at Ansem. “I’m not sure why.” Ansem was silent for a few moments.

“…Many have called the Keyblade a mysterious weapon,” he responded, though Riku couldn’t tell if he was disappointed or simply deep in thought. “Perhaps it is something that also requires practice to obtain in a more permanent fashion.”

“It’s called a Keyblade?” It was becoming more and more clear that there were a lot of things about the outside world that Riku needed to learn, and she needed to learn them quickly in order to stay on her feet.

“Don’t worry, however,” Ansem said. Riku… hadn’t been worried. It was just a little embarrassing, was all. “Once given, the ability to wield does not go away. If your efforts are consistent, you will regain your Keyblade back soon enough.” Riku nodded. If there was one thing she was sure about, it was that she needed to be stronger in order to make sure everything with Sora and Kairi got sorted out right. “Follow me.” Ansem turned to go down the corridor in the direction Riku had originally been headed. “We’ll continue this conversation as we walk.” He was walking fairly slowly, so Riku was able to catch up and match his pace quite easily. “I take it you were headed downstairs?”

“I need to talk to Maleficent,” Riku explained. She wouldn’t mind finding something to eat, either, but paying Maleficent back for the room was her first priority.

“And what did you think of her?”

“She’s a witch,” Riku said, not caring if she was blunt or not. Ansem laughed.

“There may be some truth in that,” he replied as the two of them continued walking down a series of corridors, “though I would advise against calling her that directly.”

“Why are you here, if you know what she’s like?” And if Maleficent really  _was_  a witch, then why had Ansem brought  _Riku_  here as well?

“Maleficent’s methods may not always be what most would define as socially acceptable,” Ansem said, “but she is often quite effective in reaching her goals. In exchange for a few services here and there, Maleficent lets me stay in this castle, and she is helping me with some of my personal concerns, as well.” Riku was still skeptical of Maleficent, and was about to say so, but Ansem continued speaking. “I confess that I cannot do much in my current state, but Maleficent and I have come to an agreement that is quite beneficial.”

“Because you’re ill?” Riku asked. Ansem laughed again.

“If you’re concerned about me, you needn’t worry.” He sounded like he was smiling. “Maleficent has been very helpful towards me, and I expect I’ll recover my full strength soon.” They arrived at a hall with a great number of lifts, and Riku followed Ansem into one of them. The lift took them down into another hall, but this one was larger and more open.

“Oh. That’s good, I guess.” Riku was reminded of his earlier comments, about the Keyblade and the darkness. It sounded like she wasn’t the only one who was looking to become stronger.

“But enough about me,” Ansem said, though he still seemed amused. “Have you thought about what you’re going to do next?”

“I need to pay Maleficent back for the room,” Riku said, “and then I need to find Sora and Kairi.” The floors in the halls now were stone and metal, rather than carpet. Riku’s boots made clicking noises that echoed off the walls as she walked, her determination renewed.

“Maleficent could help you in your search,” Ansem suggested. Riku frowned again. “It’s not necessary to trust her, but there are a great number of worlds to which your friends could have traveled. She has resources that could speed up your search considerably.”

“And what would I have to do for her in order to get her to help me?”

“That is between the two of you.” Ansem stopped when they entered another hall. “I have other matters I must attend to now, but you will most likely find Maleficent through there. I am sure that you are clever enough to find an agreement that will help you meet up with your friends.” He bowed to her the same way as when he’d introduced himself. “Until next time, Riku.”

“…Right,” Riku responded. She still wasn’t sure what Maleficent would be expecting her to do, but at least Riku had learned some things in their conversation. “Thanks for showing me around the castle.”

“It was a pleasure.” Then, Ansem turned and left in the direction they’d entered. Riku continued on.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Just as Ansem had said, Maleficent wasn’t too far ahead. She was standing in a large, stone room with green-flamed torches lining a walkway, leading up to a round area with color-stained glass high on the ceiling and the left wall. Against the back wall was a stone altar, and on the wall itself was another thorned-heart design similar to the one Riku had seen on the front of the castle, this one also surrounded by more curling, thorned vines. On the right was an archway leading somewhere else, but neither the torchlight nor the light from the stained glass was bright enough to illuminate anything past this area.

“There you are, child,” Maleficent said. “I hope your stay has been enjoyable so far. Have you thought about my offer any?”

“First, I want to pay you back for last night,” Riku answered. “I’ll decide what I want to do after that.”

“Why don’t you think of today as a trial run?” the witch said. “Perhaps that will set your mind at ease.” Riku shrugged.

“You can call it that if you want.”

“Then I shall explain your tasks for the day,” Maleficent declared, pulling a list out of her robes. “The first thing you need to do is set up a table in the chapel here. I’m going to be having some of my colleagues visit, and I need everything to be ready for our meeting.” She held out the list for Riku to take, and Riku did so, glancing over it once. She’d take a second look at it after Maleficent was done talking. “You’ll find the parts for the table in the closet in the hall downstairs from the third lift on the right. There are also some things from the kitchens that I need brought here before my meeting, so you can pick those up as well. To get to the kitchens, just take the same lift as the one to the closet, then go down the hall on the left, take another lift down, and go straight ahead. If you are hungry, you are free to take what you need from the kitchens for yourself as well.” Riku wondered what sort of meeting Maleficent was going to be hosting. “After you’ve set up for the meeting, please go to the library, find the books I’ve listed, and bring them back here. Then, you are free to do as you wish until I’m done with my meeting.”

“Is… that it?” Riku asked. They seemed like such mundane tasks. If Maleficent was a witch, couldn’t she do those things herself with magic?

“I have other things you could help me with, of course,” Maleficent answered, “but I think some of them are too complex for you in your present state. Perhaps you can spend your free time training? I believe I was told you enjoyed that sort of thing.” Riku didn’t really appreciate being told she wasn’t up to someone’s expectations, but if Ansem had told Maleficent she needed training, then Riku would just work on getting stronger faster and surpassing those expectations herself.

“Don’t underestimate me,” Riku said, staring back. “I can be a quick learner.” Maleficent smiled.

“That’s the spirit, dear,” the witch replied. “I’m sure if you apply yourself, you can make a great deal of improvement. Now, I have preparations that must be made before my meeting, so I will speak with you again later. I’m sure you’re eager to reunite with your friends, so please keep my offer in mind.”

“I’m gonna go now,” Riku said. Maleficent nodded, and Riku left to start the chores she’d been given.

The first thing she needed to get was the table, so Riku tried to remember the directions she’d been given. It was easy enough to find the closet, but the table was too large and unwieldy to carry all its pieces back up to the chapel in one trip. This sort of manual labor wasn’t unlike some of the construction Riku had done back on the islands, though, so after a few trips back and forth, she managed to get the table built in a reasonable amount of time.

Next, Riku went down the lifts again and headed to the kitchens. She was pretty hungry after putting the table together, so she grabbed what seemed like some fruit, a sausage, and some rice. It actually surprised her a bit, how quickly she ended up eating everything, but then Riku remembered that she hadn’t eaten dinner last night, either. In any case, Riku looked over the list Maleficent had given her and tried to find the supplies. She also found a cart to take everything back upstairs, so she started loading things onto it, from tea and cups to some type of flatbread and spread to a tub full of live jumbo shrimp. When everything was on the cart, she took it back upstairs and put it all on the table.

After she’d put the cart from the kitchens back where she’d found it, Riku went downstairs to the library. If she thought there had been a lot of books in the room Maleficent had given her, there were thousands more in the castle’s library. It was two stories tall, with an almost mazelike passage of bookcases, and Riku was suddenly glad that Maleficent had stopped the list of chores here. With a bit more investigation, though, it seemed like everything was divided into sections, so Riku started hunting in the proper areas for the books. She’d already found  _101 Moralistic Poems_  and  _Advanced Botany:_ _Solanaceae and Convolvulaceae_ , and she’d just picked up  _A Brief History of Metaphysics_  when she saw the piece of paper sticking out of a nearby book.

Putting Maleficent’s books down on a nearby table, Riku opened the book to take a closer look at the note. While the pages of the book containing the note were uniform and probably made with some sort of machine, the paper seemed to be handwritten in elegant and flowing cursive. In fact, this piece of paper had nothing to do with the book at all, and was about another subject entirely.

_Report 7_

_I am now studying materials from the meteors that rained down that fateful night. What a find!_

Who had written this? And why? From the tone in the paper, it seemed like the author was some sort of scientist, but before Riku got to read the whole thing, one of the doors in the library opened and Maleficent entered.

“Riku, are you in here?” the witch called.

“Over here,” Riku called back, hastily stuffing the handwritten page inside the botany book. Maleficent appeared in front of her moments later. “What is it?”

“Have you found all the books yet?” Maleficent asked. “A few of my guests have arrived early, and I’d like to be able to give them the books to borrow.”

“I’m almost done,” Riku replied, picking up the other books on the table. “I just need to visit the political science section first.” The last two books were probably located there, though Riku was unsure why Maleficent had colleagues with such wildly different views, if the titles  _Red Tide: Why the Lack of Maritime Regulations are Destroying our Oceans’ Ecosystems (and Why You Should Care)_  and  _Fist of the Empire, Lament of the Sailor: Seven Reasons Increased Government Interference is Causing the Death of a Free-Spirited Economy_  were anything to go by.

“Well, please hurry,” Maleficent said. “Some of them can be quite impatient.”

“I’ll bring them over when I’ve got them all,” Riku said.

“I’ll expect to see you again soon, then,” Maleficent responded, turning around and walking back out of the library. Once Maleficent had gone, Riku quickly sped over to the political science section, found the two books as quickly as she could, then opened the botany book back up and read more of the note as she took the lifts and stairs back up to the chapel. Her curiosity only deepened the further she read on.

_The material is foreign to our world. It is elastic to the touch, and when two pieces are combined, they bond easily. None of the records even mention such a substance._

Riku had no idea what sort of thing the paper was talking about, but it seemed so mysterious that she had to find out more. She kept walking towards the chapel, her head bent over the stack of books. The next part struck Riku so deeply, though, that she stopped right in her tracks.

_Was it introduced to this world when I opened that door?_

Someone else had opened a door, too. Was there a door somewhere in or near the castle, just like there had been a door on the islands? Why had this person’s story been stuck in a random book in the library? If the numbering on the paper was correct, there were more pages similar to this one. Were the others in the library, too? Would they talk more about the door? Riku had to read on. She needed to know-

“ _I’ll_  be taking  _that_ ,” the giant burlap sack said, snatching the botany book from Riku’s hands and trapping the paper inside as the book snapped shut. Riku looked up, and to her credit, she did not scream.

“…It’s rude to grab something out of a person’s hands,” Riku replied, after a moment, voice calm though her eyes were wide. It was one of the most disgusting things Riku had ever encountered, although the only reason it didn’t get the first-place spot was because Riku had already encountered the Heartless this morning. It was obese, with undefined hands like a ragdoll, stitching on its sides that held the sack together, gaping black holes where the eyes and mouth would be, and a curl hanging down the back of its head like a single, thick lock of hair. It smelled of rot and dirt, and Riku could hear the faint skittering of insects coming from within its body.

“It’s  _also_  rude,” the thing responded, putting the hand not holding the book on its large hip, “to keep a guest waiting.” It turned to yell over its shoulder. “Maleficent, who is this kid?” Riku realized that she’d been so absorbed by the paper she’d found that she hadn’t noticed she’d arrived back in the chapel.

“You needn’t shout; I can here you quite well from here,” Maleficent said. “This is Riku. She’s been assisting me with some things. Riku, that is Mr. Oogie Boogie; he is a colleague of mine.” She beckoned Riku over to her. “Come, bring me the rest of those books.” While Riku didn’t appreciate being told what to do – nor did she find herself grateful that she could now see a few of Maleficent’s  _other_  colleagues in greater detail – she was glad that she had an excuse not to have to stand near Oogie Boogie any longer.

Riku walked up to Maleficent and handed her the other books. There were two other people standing around the large table, though only one of them was human. The first was a tanned man in black and red robes with a turban and goatee. He had a staff in his hand similar to the one Maleficent carried, though it was topped with the image of a snake. The second man was almost as horrible as Oogie Boogie. He had blue skin and blue flames for hair, and was wearing some sort of black sheet with a skull design on the edges. He looked Riku up and down once briefly, then smiled at her with needle-sharp teeth.

“This is Jafar, Royal Vizier of Agrabah,” Maleficent said, gesturing to the turbaned man, then to the blue-skinned man, “And this is Hades, Lord of the Dead.”

“It’s a pleasure,” Hades said in an oily voice.

“Indeed,” Jafar said, though he seemed unimpressed. Riku remained silent.

“You are free to go, Riku,” Maleficent said. “I will speak with you again after my meeting is over.” Riku turned and walked back out of the chapel.

She wasn’t going anywhere in particular, just vaguely outside. Training was a good idea, and Riku probably would’ve done it anyway, even if Maleficent hadn’t suggested it. Sora and Kairi were out there somewhere, and Riku needed to make sure everything went smoothly once she met up with them again. After some walking, Riku came to a little stone courtyard, lined on one side by giant brass tubes that periodically let out more of that strange, multicolored steam, another side with only a short ledge keeping any inhabitants of the castle from falling into the water far below.

She called her sword to her hand for the third time that day, and it appeared, the slight aura of darkness glowing around it for a second. Riku contemplated it again; it still wasn’t the one from before, what Ansem had called a Keyblade, but it was still powerful, and it was still Riku’s.

“Alright,” Riku said out loud. “That’s fine for now.” Then, she realized she knew its name. “Soul Eater, huh? What kind of souls do you eat?” As if in response to her question - or perhaps hearing her voice - more Heartless appeared in the courtyard. There were a handful of the Shadows that Riku had seen this morning, but there was also another type as well. These ones were still small, but they seemed to have some type of armor on that probably made them a little tougher. The Heartless with the armor had the same symbol on their fronts as the giant emblem on the outside of the castle and the smaller one in the chapel. What was it a symbol of? “Theirs?” Riku asked rhetorically, smiling. That was fine with her. “This’ll be better practice anyway.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After some time of alternately training and fighting Heartless, Riku slowly made her way back to Maleficent. She stopped here and there to explore some of the castle and get a better idea of its layout, and she thought about Maleficent’s offer of help.

All the chores Riku had been given today were very basic, though Maleficent had said that Riku needed more training before starting any advanced tasks. Riku wanted to meet up with Sora and Kairi again, but she couldn’t make a portal on her own yet. No matter how she looked at it, she was dependent on either Maleficent or Ansem to help her reach her goals. Training would be good for Riku anyway, so… maybe it would be good to accept her offer, at least until Riku figured out how to make a portal. Riku would just make Maleficent be very clear about her expectations, and she wouldn’t agree to anything that was fishy. She wouldn’t spend any amount of time around the witch’s coworkers, either, if she could help it; at least  _Maleficent_  had made the attempt to be polite.

Actually working out the details of an agreement with Maleficent had been fairly easy. While Riku did chores for Maleficent in the castle, and spent the rest of the time training, Maleficent would look for Sora and Kairi. The witch also said that there were a few tasks off-world of a higher importance, but that she was still arranging some of the details. Once Riku agreed, Maleficent laid out some ground rules for living in the castle.

“When you are not training,” Maleficent said, “you may do as you wish, but please do not go into the hall beyond this chapel, the lower floors of the basement, or any of my rooms in the northeast tower. You will also refrain from tampering with any machinery you do not understand.”

“Is that it?” Riku asked, a bit testy of she admitted that to herself. She also had a sudden curiosity as to what made the hall beyond the chapel or the basement off-limits, but she figured she should save that exploration for later, once Maleficent got used to her more.

“I have gotten you some clothes and other supplies to start you out,” Maleficent continued, “but you will need to buy any potions or other items yourself. There is usually a Moogle situated outside the castle gates, so go there to make your purchases.” Riku had no idea what a Moogle was - and it wasn’t like she knew anywhere  _else_  to go, either - but she also filed that info away for later. “I hope you will enjoy your stay here,” Maleficent smiled, “I am sure we will both benefit from this arrangement. I will find you again when I wish to speak to you next, but you are dismissed for now.”

That evening, when Riku went back to her room, there were two additional outfits in the closet, one a top with a skirt, the other some sort of formal gown. Riku vowed never to wear them. In the nightstand, there was a set of pajamas, which thankfully consisted of a shirt and pants.

Everything in the bathroom was in pink bottles and boxes, all from a company called Mademoiselle Moogle, with descriptions ranging from ‘rose scented’ to ‘silky smooth’ to ‘unscented and hypoallergenic’. There was even a bottle of pills that talked about ‘pompom predictability’ and claimed to ‘protect against unwanted side-effects from Monsieur’, and Riku quickly shoved that one in the back of a drawer with a face turning as pink as the rest of the things in the bathroom.

“I  _really_  need to find Sora and Kairi,” Riku muttered to herself.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It was a few days later that Maleficent gave Riku a job other than training or playing gofer.

“The next task I have for you requires you to infiltrate another world,” Maleficent said.  _Finally_. “This is a task of utmost importance to me, so please wear the dress I bought you during your stay there.”

“I don’t wear dresses,” Riku replied flatly, mouth in a flat line. She’d spent a good chunk of the munny she’d collected from defeated Heartless at the Moogle shop, and the small, portly creature with the red pompom on its head had been very willing to show alternatives she could purchase. Riku hadn’t just bought healing potions, but also magical soap so that she could wear her top and shorts all the time, instead of that skirt Maleficent had given her.

“You will have to make an exception, then,” Maleficent insisted, frowning now as well. “There is going to be a masquerade ball, and you must blend in properly. I’m looking for a particular individual, and you causing a scene will simply not do.”

“Who are you looking for?” Riku asked. “I’m not comfortable in dresses; if I wear one, I’ll only stick out more, won’t I?” Maleficent was pursing her lips now.

“I want you to find me a girl that is like a princess,” the witch said. “I need to speak with her, but since I… will not be able to blend in myself,” her tone went bitter for a moment, “you must befriend this girl and convince her to leave the ball so that I may have my conversation with her. If you are dressed like a princess yourself, I am sure that the girl will listen to you.”

“You want me to lure a girl away from a party for you?” It sounded a little suspicious. “What are you gonna do to her?”

“ _Do_  to her?” that question seemed to improve Maleficent’s mood, strangely. “I merely wish to speak with her, that is all. The subject of our conversation is not your concern. All you need to do is play the role I’ve assigned you.”

“I’m not really the princess type,” Riku said, crossing her arms. She didn’t believe for one second, either, that Maleficent’s intentions towards this girl were likely to be admirable, but if it was just talking, then she was probably looking to make a deal with the girl similar to the one she’d made with Riku. Anything the girl agreed to was her own responsibility, not Riku’s. Besides, Riku needed to help Maleficent if she wanted to see Sora and Kairi.

“I’m aware that you are… not what comes to mind when I think of a princess,” Maleficent replied, amused, “but one must use the resources one has been given.”

“What if I go to the ball as a prince, instead?” Riku suggested. “A princess is more likely to be interested in a prince over another princess, right?” Maleficent pursed her lips again, but she wasn’t protesting right away, so Riku continued. “I’ll be more comfortable like that, so I’ll blend in more easily.” The next point was a bit of a gamble, but being able to present herself as she preferred was worth it, to Riku. “If going as a prince doesn’t work, then I’ll do things your way in the future, but if it  _does_  work, then you have to let me do your jobs  _my_  way.”

“Oh?” Maleficent raised an eyebrow, and she was smiling again. “That’s a very intriguing proposal, Riku.” her tone of voice was casual, but Riku could tell that the witch had latched onto the idea like a barnacle. “I suppose you might be given some leeway, since it  _is_  a masquerade ball, after all…” She rubbed the golden orb on her staff thoughtfully. “…Very well. I will allow you this indulgence of yours, but if it does not bring me the proper results, you  _will_  do as I say when I give you tasks from then on, understand?”

“Yeah, I understand,” Riku replied, keeping her own voice just as casual.

“Bring me that dress, then,” Maleficent commanded. “I need to… alter it.” Riku nodded, then left to go get the dress Maleficent had bought her.

When she came back downstairs, she saw that Maleficent had set up a large, black sewing wheel. Her staff was at her feet, and she was threading some strange, shimmery sort of thread on it that gave off an equally strange green glow.

“There you are, child,” Maleficent said, though her tone was brisk and her gaze was focused on the machine in front of her. “Give me the dress, and don’t touch anything.” She snapped her fingers and held out her hand to Riku impatiently.

“You’re going to sew it yourself?” Riku asked, skeptical, though she gave the dress to Maleficent as requested.

“It’s one of my specialties,” Maleficent responded, though she still didn’t look up from the machine. “The ball is tonight, so we need to hurry. Now, go clean yourself up; I won’t have you smelling like you’ve been fighting Heartless all day when you’re at the ball.” Riku made an annoyed face. Dressing nice for a party was important, sure, but she objected to being told she  _smelled_. “Your outfit will be laying on your bed once you’ve freshened up a bit.”

“I’ll make a good prince,” Riku said. “And I don’t  _smell_.”

“Go.” Riku, still annoyed, stalked up the castle back to her room. If Maleficent had doubts about her, then Riku would just have to prove Maleficent wrong. She  _would_  be a good prince.

After Riku had showered, she found the outfit Maleficent had sewed and put it on. It was a deep emerald color, and while the sleeves were a bit on the puffy side, it brought out the green bits of Riku’s teal eyes quite nicely. There was also a cap that matched the outfit, so Riku stuffed her hair under it to make it look short. When she presented herself to Maleficent again, the witch nodded once, though it was a bit sharp.

“You look very… dashing,” Maleficent said, though it looked like it pained her a bit to say it. Maybe she was just old-fashioned. “Here is your invitation, and if anyone asks why you’re there, simply say that you’re visiting for the holiday festivities. Remember, you need to find the princess so I can speak with her.” She handed Riku an envelope from within her robes, which Riku took, and then pointed her staff out to the side, another swirling portal appearing at its tip. “Those clothes should keep you from getting sick when you go through the portal, so don’t dawdle.” At least Riku found out that getting dizzy from a portal wasn’t unusual, and she filed that information away for future reference. “Even if you do not see me, I will still be watching. Find me the girl I am searching for, Riku, and if you are successful, then I will help you locate the people  _you_  are searching for.”

“…Right.” Keeping the idea of Sora and Kairi in her mind, Riku went through the portal and set out to find a princess.


	5. Big Easy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is a masquerade.

Exiting the portal, Riku found herself on a road outside a mansion. There were a bunch of lights around the mansion, as well as the distant sounds of music, so Riku figured that was where the masquerade ball was. The evening air was warm and balmy - perhaps more suited to the islands than the layered outfit Riku was wearing at the moment - but Riku decided to make the best of it and headed up the road to the mansion's front gates.

After showing her invitation to one of the men at the gate, Riku was allowed into the masquerade ball, which seemed to be taking place in a large outdoor courtyard. The atmosphere of the party was upbeat and lively, and the music, now more audible, seemed to keep people dancing. All along one side of the party were refreshments of all kinds, the most prominent being a large tower of some type of finger-food. It was actually quite crowded, and Riku was unsure as to where she should start looking for this princess.

"Oh, _there_ you are!" someone called. "I was beginning to worry you wouldn't arrive at all." Riku turned to look at the person who'd called her.

"Am I late?" Riku asked. Standing in front of her was a girl a little older than her, with blond hair in an elaborate updo. She was dressed in an expensive-looking pink dress with many petticoats and a neckline that drew attention to her curvy figure. She was fanning herself with a small, lace fan, and had on short, white gloves. She was even wearing a tiara.

...It couldn't be _that_ easy, could it?

"Don't you worry about that," the girl said, shutting her fan and stowing it... somewhere, "we're just honored to have you visit us at all! What kind of hostess would I be if I got upset at our special guest?" It _did_ seem as if it was this simple. If this girl was really the princess Maleficent was looking for, then Riku would just have to act like a prince in return.

"I'm glad to hear it," Riku replied, smiling in return, then held out her hand. "But since I arrived a little late, I'll have to make it up to you somehow. Do you want to dance?" The girl giggled and took Riku's hand.

"I thought you'd never ask," she said. Riku stole a quick glance at the other dancers and arranged herself and the girl in a similar fashion. She figured that as long as she kept in time with the music and didn't step on any feet, she would be fine. Besides, part of being a prince was dancing with ladies, so she had to learn sometime, right? "You haven't danced properly until you've danced in the birthplace of jazz. Traveling all the way from Maldonia won't excuse you from participating in the best New Orleans has to offer."

Wait... _Maldonia_? Maybe it _wasn't_ that simple, after all.

"I'm sure I'll enjoy my time in New Orleans," Riku said, spinning the girl while she tried to think fast, "but I think I've, uh, forgotten some of the details. There's so many new things here that the introductions, are, um..."

"Oh!" the girl gasped. "I'm so sorry! My name is Charlotte. Charlotte LaBouff, but you already knew that last part." Riku kept dancing. If this Charlotte was someone from a prominent family, then she probably _was_ the princess. What should Riku do? "It's just the bee's knees to meet you, Prince Naveen, I'm all a-flutter!" ...Riku could act like a prince, but impersonating someone else was a different story. "I _do_ hope you'll excuse any girlish flightiness," Charlotte giggled, batting her eyelashes a few times.

"It's nice to meet you," Riku said, executing another spin that caused Charlotte's dress to twirl quite prettily. Should she just play along? What was going to happen when the _real_ Prince Naveen showed up? Riku needed to convince Charlotte to talk to Maleficent, in order to find out where Sora and Kairi were. "I'm excited to learn more about the city, too." At least that part was true; Riku had wanted to see other worlds for so long that even just dancing was a fascinating experience, princess or no.

"You'll just love it here, I know it," Charlotte gushed. "We've got the music, the food, the style, the... how old did you say you were, again?"

"I'm fifteen," Riku replied, smiling to cover her nervousness.

"Really? I coulda sworn Big Daddy told me you were at least eighteen..." Riku smiled wider, trying to think fast again, but Charlotte surprised her by laughing. "But you're so _mature_ , what's a few years here or there? Maldonia is like a whole different _world_ from here. You probably do things differently than how it is in New Orleans."

"You could say that," Riku grinned, passing over awkward conclusions about Charlotte's intentions for the moment and latching onto a subject she felt more comfortable with, "but getting to see what people from other worlds are like is part of the fun, right?"

"Too true," Charlotte agreed. "Though I think _this_ girl needs to take a short break for refreshments."

"Oh, are you tired?" Riku asked. Now that she looked at Charlotte, the blonde's cheeks were quite rosy with exertion. "I'm sorry, I was having so much fun talking to you that I didn't notice." Charlotte laughed again and dragged Riku to the refreshment table.

"It's fine," Charlotte replied, waving a hand absently. "Now, you have _got_ to try these beignets my friend Tiana made. Oh, there she is!" There was another girl about the same age as Charlotte at the table with all the pastries, and she smiled back at Charlotte and Riku. "Tiana is simply a genius chef, you know." Charlotte found a pastry and pushed it into Riku's hand. "Ooh, I need some punch." Charlotte went over to the punch bowl, fanning herself.

"It's a pleasure," Riku said, smiling at Tiana, then blinked when she saw the outfit Tiana was wearing. "You're at the masquerade as a princess, too?" It was a much slimmer dress than Charlotte's, without any attention-grabbing petticoat, and Tiana's black hair was in a more simple bun, but the pale blue color contrasted very nicely with the warm brown of her skin, and she had gloves of her own as well. Was it possible that Tiana was a princess, too? If that was the case, which girl was the one Maleficent was interested in?

"No, no, Charlotte just insisted I borrow it for the night," Tiana protested. "I'm really here to help with the food." She seemed a little embarrassed. "I take it you're Prince Naveen?"

"Um, actually..." Riku took a bite the pastry Charlotte had given her. Tiana shot her a questioning look. "This really is good. Did you make all these?" I probably wouldn't help her case, but Riku still felt bad about pretending to be this Naveen person, especially since he seemed famous. Tiana was about to respond to that, but they were quickly interrupted.

"I told you she was a genius didn't I?" Charlotte had apparently returned from getting punch, though she was still fanning herself. "New Orleans is simply _full_ of wonderful food like this, you simply _must_ spend some quality time here." She slapped Riku playfully with her fan, though since Riku was currently munching on a beignet, she coughed on the powdered sugar for a moment. "Tiana's is the best of course, but there're so many other good things to experience." Tiana shot Riku a sympathetic look, and Riku managed to stop coughing and smile back.

Charlotte was the more obvious candidate as to being an important figure in the community, so she could be the princess. Tiana had an air of regalness to her, however, that didn't seem to have anything to do with her status. What should Riku do? Whatever it was, she had to decide before the real Naveen showed up. Could she somehow find a way to talk to both of them?

"So!" Charlotte said briskly. "Are you ready to tear up the dance floor again, Naveen?"

"...Actually," Riku replied, "can I talk to you for a minute, Charlotte?" Tiana seemed to be catching on to what Riku was going to say, but Charlotte apparently must have thought it was Christmas morning or something. Riku had decided that even if she told Charlotte she wasn't really Naveen, that she could still create an explanation that got Charlotte alone long enough for Maleficent to show up. If Charlotte wasn't the princess, then when the real Naveen was there and Charlotte was distracted, Riku would talk to Tiana and give Maleficent a second option.

"Oh, I'm simply blushing," Charlotte said, beginning to fan herself again. "Whatever could you have to say to little old me?" Riku got the impression that Charlotte actually had a very good idea of what she _wanted_ Riku to say, but went with it anyway because it seemed to be effective.

"Why don't we take a walk?" Riku suggested. Charlotte nodded, still enamored with Naveen, and followed Riku quite enthusiastically. "There's something I want to tell you,” Riku continued. She started leading Charlotte away to an isolated part of the garden outside the mansion. "Actually, I've been wanting to say it for a while, now."

"Yes, Naveen?" Riku glanced around once to make sure they were alone, and then resolved to make her explanation as long as possible.

"I had fun dancing with you, Charlotte, and your party is really nice." Charlotte nodded, beaming. "I'm not used to this place, and you really made me feel welcome here, so I have to be honest with you." Riku looked at Charlotte's expression; the blonde was simply beaming, and Riku had to hold in a wince. "I haven't told the truth yet."

"It's true, then?" Charlotte gasped, covering her mouth with her fan. Riku blinked.

"...What's true?" she asked, suddenly perplexed.

"They said there might be a chance, but I didn't think that was the _reason!_ "

"What reason?"

"Well, you're still a little young, but I'm just peachy waiting a few years." She batted her eyelashes at Riku again, and Riku started to get a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"Charlotte, that's not what I-"

"You're here to find a _bride_ , aren't you?"

" _No_ , I'm not," Riku said.

"...What?" Charlotte still had a smile firmly in place, though it suddenly seemed strained.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you," Riku continued. "I'm not getting married anytime soon, and it's awkward when you keep implying it."

"C-Come again?" Charlotte was now fanning herself nervously.

"You're a really nice girl, Charlotte," Riku insisted, trying to let the girl down as gently as possible, "and I'm sure you'll find someone suited for you when it's the right time, but I'm not visiting New Orleans to get married."

"I'm not sure I like what _you're_ implying, Naveen," Charlotte retorted, suddenly looking angry.

"But your party has been great," Riku pressed. She didn’t want to seem ungrateful. "I liked the dancing, and you're a great girl, really, so instead of worrying about marriage, can't we just-" Riku was about to say _talk_ , but she was interrupted.

"Just stop right there, mister!" Charlotte said, whacking Riku with her fan.

"Hey!" It seemed she wasn't taking this well. Riku had never had to preemptively break up with a girl before, but she was under the impression that she was being as considerate as possible.

"I'm not sure what it's like in Maldonia," Charlotte said, with another hit from her fan, "but the women here are _ladies_ , including me."

"That's not what I mean," Riku quickly backpedaled. "I was just trying to say-" Charlotte smacked her again. "Ow!"

"If your intentions aren't pure, let me tell you that I'm not that kind of girl!" Another whack with the fan.

"I never said you were!" Riku was beginning to think, however, that Charlotte was the kind of girl who tended to jump to conclusions. "If you'd just let me explain-"

"Big Daddy is letting you stay in our house during your visit here, and this is how you talk to me?" Smack.

"Will you stop _hitting_ me?" But Charlotte just whacked Riku upside the head a few more times.

"I can't believe the _nerve_ you have to..." Charlotte's fan hit Riku's hat, knocking it off her head and causing her silver hair to spill down around her shoulders. "...oh." She blinked, and her arm went back down to her side. "You're... not Prince Naveen, are you?"

"No. My name is Riku."

"...You're a girl."

"Yeah," Riku said. Charlotte sighed. "I was trying to tell you, but you just started hitting me."

"Can't blame a girl for wanting to defend her honor," Charlotte said, still looking a bit annoyed.

"I guess not," Riku replied. Charlotte looked relieved, then suspicious again for a moment.

"This wasn't exactly what I meant when I said I'd meet a hundred frogs if I could find a prince," the blonde warned. "I'm not _that_ kind of girl, either." Riku wondered for a moment what the definition of _that kind of girl_ was, but considering various reactions to how she treated Kairi back on the islands, she decided it was best if she didn't ask.

"I just wanted to _talk_ ," Riku insisted. "And I'm not a prince yet, but I'm _going_ to be, one day."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Riku looked at Charlotte again for a moment. "Are you interested in Naveen because you're a princess? I've always wanted to meet a real princess."

“That’s… actually kinda sweet, Riku,” Charlotte replied, “but the only thing I’m princess of is the Mardi Gras parade this year. That’s why I wanted to meet Prince Naveen so badly, because _I_ want to be a real _princess_ one day.” She smoothed out her dress and took a breath while Riku wondered if technicalities counted. “Speaking of that, I should probably get back to the party.”

“Wait,” Riku said, quickly picking up her hat and stuffing her hair back into it. Charlotte paused for a moment.

“What is it?”

“Your friend Tiana… is _she_ a princess, then?”

“No, she’s not one, either.” Riku frowned.

“I was visiting because I heard there was going to be a princess here,” Riku said. It was the truth, in a way, and Riku _had_ to find one.

“We’re fresh out, sorry,” Charlotte responded. “You probably just misheard people talking about Naveen’s visit. Now, I _really_ have to be getting back…”

“Are you _sure?_ ” Riku pressed, stalling for more time. “I’m positive there’s a princess here _somewhere_.”

"Now introducing Prince Naveen of Maldonia!" The call came from the main party area, and Charlotte jumped.

"Oh no! I have to go meet Naveen!" She whipped a powder compact from out of nowhere, blotted at her face a few times, adjusted the top of her dress - which was actually a little difficult not to look at - and started walking back to the party.

"Wait!" Riku said, realizing what was happening and starting to follow. "I still have to ask you a few things!" Why hadn't Maleficent shown up yet? Riku was never going to get another chance to get Charlotte alone; even if she wasn't a _real_ princess, being princess of the Mardi Gras parade was close enough, right?

"Riku, I really have to-" but she cut herself off. " _Eurgh!_ What are _those?_ " The shadows in the corners of the garden outside the mansion seemed to detach themselves, like they were alive, and they were rushing straight towards Charlotte. They were large, jagged shapes, with laughing, mask-like faces; they _had_ to be Heartless. Charlotte screamed, and tried to hit one of them with her fan, but the shadow didn't seem to be deterred.

"Charlotte!" Riku replied sharply, calling Soul Eater to her hand and running at the Heartless closest to Charlotte, hitting it back. "Stay close to me, okay?"

"Okay," Charlotte nodded, clearly terrified. The Heartless chose that moment, along with its companions, to lunge at the two of them again, so Riku focused her attention on beating them back and defeating them. They were tougher than the Heartless back in Hollow Bastion, but Riku managed to defeat them while keeping Charlotte safe.

"Are you okay, Charlotte?" Riku asked, once the Heartless were defeated. She dismissed Soul Eater from her hand and spent a moment or two catching her breath.

"Riku, you just... and those things... with that creepy-looking sword... oh, I'm simply speechless!" Clearly, Charlotte was still in shock, judging from both her response and the way she'd started fanning herself nervously again.

"But you're alright?" Riku asked again. Then, "...Do you really think my sword is creepy-looking?" That seemed to bring Charlotte back to her sense, at least.

"Well, the sword's a bit too fire-and-brimstone for my tastes," Charlotte responded, smiling, "but you were very brave in saving me, so thank you." Riku grinned back, feeling a bit more relieved. "Saving a lady from terrible monsters is a very princely thing to do, you know. If you keep at it, I'm sure even you can be a prince one day, Riku."

"Thanks," Riku said, deciding to accept the entirety of the compliment as it was intended, concessions and all.

"That was awful, but I think I need to check on the other guests now," Charlotte continued, "so let's-"

"There you are, Riku." Riku turned to see who was approaching her and Charlotte.

"Maleficent." The witch nodded her acknowledgment.

"I started looking for you as soon as those _terrible_ creatures showed up," Maleficent said, though she was smiling as she said it. Riku shot her a questioning look, but Maleficent ignored it. "And who is this lovely lady we have here?"

"This is Charlotte," Riku answered. "She's hosting the party here, and she's going to be the princess of the Mardi Gras parade."

"Oh, we have an _important_ lady here," Maleficent said, still smiling as she bowed at Charlotte. "I regret arriving without an invitation of my own, but I simply _had_ to check on things here once those creatures attacked. Are you alright, Miss?" She seemed to inspect Charlotte, checking for something. "No injuries of any kind?"

"Riku defeated the things that attacked us," Charlotte answered, though she seemed a bit unsettled by Maleficent. "I'm fine, really." She flicked her gaze to Riku nervously for a moment, then focused on Maleficent once more, somehow keeping a smile on her face. "Your... your mask is good," she added. "That... that _is_ a mask, right?"

"This is a masquerade, is it not?" Maleficent responded, then ceased her inspection of Charlotte and turned back to Riku. "I think we must leave, though." Was Charlotte not the princess? Was Maleficent saying that Riku failed her mission?

"Wait," Riku said. "There was another girl, too."

"Oh my goodness!" Charlotte gasped. "I hope Tiana's okay. I need to check on the other guests right away!"

"There _were_ some of those creatures elsewhere, yes," Maleficent said, "but I am quite sure they're gone now. I think that girl Tiana was the one in the blue dress?" She looked at Riku for confirmation, and Riku nodded. "I did happen to see her at the party, and she was not harmed." Riku supposed that was Maleficent's way of saying she'd spoken to Tiana as well. The witch smiled again. "She looked a bit green, however, so I expect she's gone home to rest."

"Those things are enough to make _anyone_ sick," Charlotte pouted. "I can't talk anymore. I need to go back to check on the other guests."

"We shall likely be leaving as well," Maleficent said. "Your party was quite good, but I think we've had enough excitement for one night. Come, Riku." Charlotte started walking away.

"It was nice meeting you," Riku called to Charlotte as she was departing. Charlotte waved back to Riku once, then left the area entirely. After she was gone, Riku turned to Maleficent, frowning. "You... you had something to do with those Heartless showing up, didn't you?" It seemed like the only explanation, and Riku wasn't quite sure what she thought about it just yet.

"And if I did?" Maleficent smiled back. That was as good as a confession, wasn't it? "Your friend was about to leave, wasn't she?"

"I had everything under control," Riku retorted, feeling irritated for some reason. The nervous expression on Charlotte's face rose unbidden for a moment into her thoughts, but Riku pushed it back down. Maleficent had let Charlotte go, so everything was fine. Riku had agreed to this mission because it was getting her closer to meeting up with Sora and Kairi again."If you knew what was going on, why did you wait so long to show yourself?"

"I wanted to see what kind of performance I can expect from you in the future," Maleficent explained. So it was a test. The reasoning wasn't actually that surprising, once Riku considered it. "You did quite well, by the way. I think a passing mark is in order." _That_ was a relief, at least. Riku had set out to prove that she could do things her own way, and she'd succeeded. "The Heartless are quite easy to control, if that interests you. You'll discover that for yourself, once you have a better grasp of the power of darkness." Riku really wished Maleficent would stop saying how much practice she needed; she'd heard her the first time.

"Are you going to find out where Sora and Kairi are, now?" Riku asked, crossing her arms. She'd proved herself with this mission, and thought that she'd shown plenty of effort at working to get stronger. 

"There's no need to be rude," Maleficent replied, keeping her tone calm, though there was a hint of frost to it. "I said I would, did I not? I always follow through on my agreements." She created another portal. "Let us depart this world." Riku followed her through.


	6. Hollow Bastion, part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is a metaphor about a world and an egg.

Riku spent the next few days doing almost nothing but training. There were still plenty of Heartless in and around the castle, though Riku now guessed that Maleficent was the one providing so many for Riku to practice on. No matter the reason, though, they were a good way for Riku to work on getting stronger.

When they arrived for various meetings, Maleficent introduced Riku to the rest of her associates that hadn't met Riku yet. There was the ill-tempered and demanding Queen of Hearts, who had once threatened to cut off Riku's head for not curtsying before Maleficent calmed her down, the sneering pirate captain Hook, with his namesake in place of a hand, and the sea-witch Ursula, who had the bottom half of an octopus and popped tanks of live jumbo prawns in her mouth like they were raspberries. When in front of her coworkers, Maleficent had nothing but praise for Riku, but when they were alone, she was much more impatient. The witch's repetitive comments about Riku's apparently insufficient abilities was frustrating, but Riku was determined that she would be up to the challenge of proving Maleficent wrong and facing whatever these new worlds would throw at her.

Whenever Riku simply couldn't train anymore, though, she would go to the library and search for more information similar to what she'd found during her first set of tasks for Maleficent. The library was very large, however, and it was time-consuming looking through every individual book for another strange paper like the one she'd found before.

"Are you looking for something, Riku?" Riku jumped the tiniest bit, then turned around to talk.

"Oh, it's you." How did he always seem to appear out of nowhere?

"You're always either here or out training," Ansem replied, "and at an excellent pace, I might add." Before Riku could reply, to either the fact he'd been watching or the complement itself, he continued. "Are you searching for anything in particular?" Riku debated for a few moments whether or not to tell Ansem about the paper she'd found, but decided to find out if he might know something about the paper's subject, either way. If he knew anything useful, then she might talk about the strangeness of the paper itself.

"I found something when I was looking for stuff for Maleficent," Riku said, "and I was seeing if I could find anything else about it. I think someone put it in the wrong section, though, so I'm not sure where to look."

"Well, what was it about?" Ansem asked. "I am quite familiar with this library. Perhaps I can be of some assistance?" Riku figured that Ansem probably knew the library better than her, but she wasn't sure how much she should tell him.

"...It was talking about meteors, I think," Riku answered, "and what they were made out of." She wasn't sure why she left out the part about the door, but she felt, somehow, that she should. Ansem seemed like he knew about a lot of things, including doors like the one back on the islands, but this seemed like something too important to go around telling people. It reminded her too much of other things she didn't talk about. "I didn't get to read the whole thing," she added, just in case. "It got taken away before I could finish."

"Meteors, you say?" Ansem sounded interested. "Was there any further description?"

"It said that they stuck together really easily," Riku said, going back to looking as she was talking. "Oh, and something about it being rubbery, I think." Ansem seemed to ponder Riku's description for a few moments.

"How fascinating," he commented. "Hmm... I believe I may have read something about that subject in the past."

"Really?" Riku glanced back over her shoulder at him.

"You were looking in the geology section, yes?" Riku nodded; meteors were just a different kind of rock, right? "I believe you would have more luck in the astronomy or engineering sections."

"I was going to look in astronomy next," Riku explained, walking over there as she did so and beginning to search again, "but why engineering?"

"The meteors you speak of are called Gummi Blocks," Ansem replied. "When the barrier surrounding a world is broken, it forms meteors, and those in turn are formed from Gummi Blocks." It was really too hard to concentrate on looking for more of those papers, now that the contents of the paper Riku had found were being explained to her. If Ansem knew, then she had to find out.

"Is that why they stick together?" Riku asked, stopping her search to give him her full attention.

"Precisely. You catch on quite quick, Riku." Riku still wasn't used to being complimented like that.

"That's just what I read," she protested, shifting on her feet.

"Reading comprehension is important, especially if you are working from a small amount of information," Ansem said, then continued his explanation right where he left off. "It is possible to use the Gummi Blocks to construct ships, and with those ships, it is possible to fly to other connected worlds."

"If you can use Gummi Blocks to make a ship," Riku responded, "then why does everyone here make portals?"

"Gummi ships often require a large number of specific types of blocks," Ansem explained, as if he'd been expecting the question. "Even if you obtain all the necessary components, it takes a very specialized skill-set to construct an entire ship. The ships are also slower and very visible, usually not useful for tasks requiring discretion or speed." Were Gummi ships really that impractical? If that was true, then why was there all this information about them? How old had that paper been, anyway? How long did it take people to figure this all out? "Despite this, the Gummi Blocks can still be useful to those who do not use them to build ships."

"If you don't use them to make ships, then what do you do with them?" The ships appeared to be inconvenient, from what Ansem had said, but the blocks were still interesting. Whoever had written that paper had known something else about them... hadn't they? Riku had to find out about the blocks in order to find out more about the person who'd been so interested in them, and how it related to the door the person had talked about.

"Why, you use them to find which worlds have been connected and unlocked, of course." Riku could guess that Ansem was smiling again from the amused tone in his deep voice. Immediately, she was completely absorbed again, questions about ships and portals overwhelmed by her curiosity about the doors.

"How?" Riku asked, breath caught in her throat. This was very, very important.

"Think of each world as an egg," Ansem replied. "Each world has a shell separating it from other worlds, and inside each of those isolated worlds, the people are like an unborn chick." Riku wasn't really sure where Ansem was going with this metaphor, but she did her best to follow along with what he was saying. "If the chick does not have the strength to break the shell, then it will die before it is born. In order to go to other worlds, a person must break the shell of the world surrounding them by unlocking that world."

"...By opening the door," Riku realized.

"Precisely," Ansem nodded. "The meteors and the Gummi Blocks that compose those meteors are the fragments that were once part of the world's shell. A world may become connected as soon as a person within becomes aware of other worlds, or a person from the outside becomes aware of the world within, but if there are no Gummi fragments, then the door has not yet been unlocked." If that was true, then the islands had been connected since Riku was little, probably even before she was born. But if that was the case, then why had it taken so long to be able to leave? "Only by unlocking the door can the world's shell be broken, and only then can a person begin to live in the greater world."

"How do you know all this?" It was practically everything that had caught Riku's attention regarding the doors, and no matter what kind of question she asked, Ansem always seemed to have an answer ready for her. Just who _was_ he, anyway?

"As I told you before, I am a seeker of knowledge," Ansem said, beginning to slowly walk towards the bookshelf Riku was standing in front of. But what did that _mean?_ "There is nothing more interesting to me than learning about the worlds, and if there is one thing I have learned in my search, it is that the worlds are not meant to be separated as they are now."

"You think they should all be connected?"

"Without knowledge and change, a world will stagnate, and the people of that world will inevitably stagnate as well." Ansem kept walking. It was strange, but while he often seemed to appear out of nowhere, Ansem's movements were always so sluggish that he hardly seemed to be moving at all. "Within each person is the desire to revolutionize themselves, and to do that, the worlds must be revolutionized also. It is absolutely necessary to unlock the worlds; that is what the Keyblade is for."

"…What the Keyblade is for?" Riku repeated. Her voice sounded strange to her own ears, at a slightly higher pitch than normal, with a wispy quality to it that sounded foreign and surreal. Ansem was standing right in front of her.

"You could do it, Riku," Ansem said. How had he gotten so close? And when?

"I... I don't have the Keyblade anymore," Riku protested, her pulse sounding loud in her ears. "I don't know where it went..."

"It will be simple enough, in time, to get it back," Ansem said. "Don't trouble yourself with the details before they are necessary."

"I need to go train more," Riku insisted, swallowing uncomfortably. "I can’t talk anymore today, sorry." She walked out of the library then, as quickly as she could without running, too confused to really care if she was being rude or not. Once she left the library, she started jogging, and that increased to a flat-out run, until she finally came to one of the outside balconies of the castle. There was a group of Heartless there, and Riku called Soul Eater back into her hand, tearing into the Heartless as fiercely as she could.

What had _that_ been all about? Ansem was such a strange man. Riku had gone into the library intending to look for a sign of something like the strange paper she'd found, but she certainly hadn't expected the result she'd gotten. She'd heard more about the meteors and what Ansem had called Gummi Blocks, but then he'd launched into that confusing analogy with birds and eggshells, and then he'd started talking about the doors again, and something about Riku connecting all the worlds so that they would change somehow.

Riku's head was _still_ pounding, trying to make sense of it all, and her heart was going a mile a minute, so she channeled all her confusion into her attacks. Thinking about that conversation in the library, or how Ansem moved even more strangely than he spoke, just made Riku's head hurt, so she stopped thinking and just fought and fought until all the Heartless were gone from the balcony, then she moved to another area and did the same. She just kept slashing and charging and stabbing, and the Heartless just kept coming from nowhere like they always did, but Riku kept fighting on and on and on. It wasn't until the last of the Heartless were gone from one particular area - and Riku's knees buckled under her, sending her slumping to the ground, Soul Eater dematerializing from her hand - that she realized just how long she'd been fighting.

When Riku had come outside to fight, it had still been light out. It was after sunset now, and Riku was taking in large gasps of the chilly, evening air. Her body was covered in bruises and scratches, her hands were shaking, and she realized that she couldn't remember how many hours it had been since she'd last eaten. She shakily pulled a potion out of one of her pockets, downed it in one long gulp, and called Soul Eater back into her hand, stabbing it into the ground and using it to pull herself up, back to her feet.

Walking slowly, still breathing hard and stumbling once before catching her balance on the castle wall, Riku slowly made her way down the lifts to the kitchens. She practically inhaled the first thing she could find, though she had absolutely no idea what it was called, and then decided she'd go back to her room to take a shower and then go to sleep. She was halfway back up all the stairs and lifts when she ran into Maleficent.

"There you are, Riku," Maleficent said, passing her gaze over Riku once. "I was beginning to wonder where you went."

"...I was training," was all Riku said. Maleficent raised an eyebrow, but didn’t challenge that statement, so Riku figured it didn't really matter either way. "What is it?"

"I have found that boy you were looking for," Maleficent said.

"You found Sora?" Riku asked, perking up and putting her earlier exhaustion aside for the moment. "How is he? Is he alright? Where did you find him? Was Kairi with him?"

"One question at a time, dear," Maleficent answered, looking amused. "First, he is in a place called Traverse Town. He seemed quite well, from what I could ascertain, however, one might almost say he was a bit _too_ well... As for your other friend, I am not sure, though the boy did appear to be traveling with two other companions."

"So he's alright," Riku said, relieved, though some of what Maleficent had said seemed odd. It was disappointing to hear that Kairi wasn't with him, but Riku wouldn't discount the possibility completely until she talked with Sora herself. "But what did you mean when you said he seemed _too_ well?"

"It is disappointing, to be sure," Maleficent responded, “but I must tell you what kind of situation I discovered." Riku frowned, her enthusiasm dampening some, the tiredness starting to creep back in. From what Maleficent had said, Sora was okay, but what sort of thing could have happened to make him be more okay than what was normal? "It seems he has been... going on adventures." She said it in the way someone would talk about a disobedient pet making a mess on the floor.

"...What do you mean?" Riku asked warily, starting to get a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"What I mean," Maleficent clarified, "is that he has been happily gallivanting around with his new companions, and I did not hear a single word from him about either that Kairi girl, or about you. He's been quite carefree, it seems."

"That..." Riku's frowned deepened. "Sora's always been carefree, but he's not the kind of person who would just forget about me and Kairi." Maybe Maleficent was just misinterpreting things. Riku wouldn't really put it past Maleficent to push things in a direction she wanted, either, so she had to be careful.

"The truth is not often kind, I'm afraid," Maleficent said, "and boys his age are not often as kind as girls may wish them to be." But it still didn't sound like Sora would just _not care_ what happened to Riku and Kairi. There must be _something_ that Maleficent wasn't saying. Riku was tired, though, and it was hard to think too deeply about it right now. "You seem doubtful, so I will bring you to him tomorrow. Then, you will see the truth of the situation for yourself."

"I'll talk to him tomorrow," Riku replied stubbornly, though she was starting to feel really exhausted again. "Things will be fine, you'll see." She started towards the lifts, continuing the trip to her bedroom that had been interrupted by Maleficent's news.

"We'll leave in the morning," Maleficent said, but Riku didn't bother acknowledging the witch and just kept walking. Things would be fine with Sora. They _had_ to be. But the doubt had been planted in Riku's mind, eating away at her for the rest of the night, and though she was utterly drained from fighting Heartless all day, she slept fitfully.


	7. Traverse Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is a reunion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been revamped! Many thanks to Feli for taking a second look at this.

Riku arrived in Traverse Town with Maleficent through another portal, in what seemed to be the alley behind a hotel. While there were lights on in some of the hotel rooms, the alley itself seemed to be deserted. The only real sound around the two of them was that of water through a grate to somewhere underneath the paved stones.

"You will find the boy somewhere in this town," Maleficent said, "but please try to keep a relatively low profile. I would suggest avoiding all shops but the one run by the Moogles."

"Right," Riku said, nodding, then walking through the nearest exit out of the alley. It wasn't hard to guess that Maleficent probably had enemies here, and Riku didn't want to be caught in the middle of a battle between the witch and her enemies. She was only here to find Sora - and Kairi as well, if they were together. Anything else was Maleficent’s problem, not hers.

Traverse Town seemed to be more like Hollow Bastion than the islands, the streets and walls mostly stone, large gates dividing one area from another. The people seemed to mostly keep to themselves, only paying Riku cursory glances before dismissing her as unimportant. Sora didn't turn up from Riku's own glance around the area, so Riku decided to do a little more investigation on the town itself.

"Hey," she said to a moogle who was standing near a street lamp, "do you know where the shops are around here?"

"New here, aren't you, kupo?" the small, portly creature replied in a gruff tone, tiny wings flapping as it turned around to look at her with a frown.

"I'm just visiting," Riku explained. "I'm looking for someone, and I think he might be there." Unlike the moogle running the shop at the castle in Hollow Bastion, this one didn't seem to be very friendly.

"Everybody says that when they first get here. You'll get used to this place eventually, kupo." Did it really have to be so cynical? "Your friend probably got eaten by a Heartless, when your world got destroyed or in one of the parts of this town that aren't so safe, kupo."

"He's _not_ a Heartless," Riku insisted, crossing her arms and trying not to become too irritated at the moogle. "I know he's here somewhere, and I'm going to find him."

"Your boyfriend, then, kupo," the moogle corrected, the large, red pompom on the top of its head bobbing smugly.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Great, now Riku's face was turning red.

"Well, he's not your boyfriend _anymore_ , is he, kupo?" the moogle snickered. For such a seemingly-harmless creature, it had a very nasty streak, in Riku's opinion. "Not the type you want to sweep you off your feet and steal your heart, kupo."

"Sora's _here_ , I know it," Riku said, finally losing her temper. "He _didn't_ get turned into a Heartless, and _I_ don't need to listen to this." Then she turned to leave this thing as quickly as she could.

"Good," the moogle said, only partly under its breath as she started walking away. "Maybe now I can get some peace instead of people asking me where the shops are just because I'm a moogle, kupo." Riku winced a little, as she hadn't meant to offend it by assuming, but it was hard for her to feel too bad when the moogle had insulted Sora like that. She stalked across the cobblestone square and plopped herself down on a convenient chair, resting her chin in her hands, elbows on the nearby table.

Was everyone in Traverse Town someone who'd lost their world? Did all the people here eventually become cynical, resigned to their situation? Riku hadn't _meant_ to get separated from Sora and Kairi, and the longer they spent apart, the more worried Riku became for them. Maleficent had said that Sora was okay, but the way she'd described it was too strange to be reassuring. Riku knew that she'd have to see Sora and Kairi with her own eyes before she completely believed any second-hand information, but it was frustrating to know that Sora was somewhere in this town that Riku couldn't see.

"Are you gonna order something, honey, or are you just gonna sit there and mope?" Riku blinked and looked up. A woman was there in a uniform and apron, tapping her pen against a paper pad impatiently. "I don't got all day, here." Now that Riku saw where she was, it appeared she was sitting at a table in some outdoor restaurant.

"I was just..." Riku was about to explain herself, and then decided she didn't want to get into another pointless argument. "...Nevermind, I need to get going, anyway." The sooner she found Sora, the less time she'd have to talk to the rude people in Traverse Town.

"Aw, don't be such a witch," another voice said from behind Riku. "The kid obviously just got here." On the other side, there was another woman wearing the same uniform as the first.

"And am _I_ glad that _you_ just got here," the first one replied. "These longer shifts are killing me. I get home every night, and my feet look like something you'd find in the Third District." She held out her paper pad and pen to the second woman. "But that apartment's not gonna pay for itself."

"Ohh, don't mention that," the second waitress said, suddenly covering her face with her hands, ignoring the paper pad and pen completely. "After all, the reason you need to work extra to pay for your apartment..." Was she gonna start crying? Both women seemed to have forgotten Riku was there entirely. She should probably just leave the restaurant while they were distracted and continue her search for Sora.

"Stop that right now," the first one said, whapping the other with the pad. "So, my roommate became Heartless chow." She shrugged flippantly. "It happens to people every day. I can keep the apartment by myself; a little extra work isn't gonna kill me."

"Hey, I just got an idea!" Well, at least the crying woman had perked back up quickly enough.

"What is it?" the first waitress asked. Riku stood up so she could leave the two of them to their conversation in peace.

"Maybe you can get the new girl to move in with you!" Both the women stared at Riku expectantly, grinning. "You need a place to stay, right?"

"...I'm just visiting here until I find my friend," Riku repeated. She was nearing her limit of how many people she could talk to from this town. "But thanks for the offer."

"Of _course_ you're just visiting," the first woman said, raising an eyebrow skeptically. "Listen, if you need a place to crash, I-"

" I miss when I first got here," the second woman interrupted. "I used to be so optimistic, and now look at me, crying over your old roommate... She was so _nice_ , too..." She hid her face in her hands again.

"Pull yourself together, woman," the first one said, whapping her friend with the paper pad again. Riku took the opportunity to leave the restaurant and continue her search for Sora.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Riku found the Moogle shop before she found Sora, so she decided to go in for a short time and see if this one had anything the one in Hollow Bastion was lacking. As it turned out, there was a much wider selection here, and the moogles were eager to tell her all about it. She'd gotten a modest amount of munny that Heartless she'd defeated had sometimes left behind, and she scanned over the main shop list. A moogle quickly informed her that rare stones or minerals were accepted here as well, which Riku didn't have very much of, but the employee reassured that she could still get something from them.

"We just got some new recipes in," the moogle who'd declared itself her 'synthesis consultant' said, "so as long as you pay the 10% Loaner's Fee, it should be fine, kupo." It handed her a second list of rarer items. "Of course, if you decide to open an account with us, your first recipe is 15% off, kupo." It continued listing other member benefits - most acquired over time - while Riku scanned the recipes and tried to find something that was both affordable and didn't require her to get her ears pierced.

"But I'm just visiting here," Riku said. "Most of the time, I buy stuff from the shop in Hollow Bastion." The moogle's pompom quivered, though it was impossible to tell if it was in fear or excitement.

"H-Hollow Bastion, kupo..." it muttered, looking over the stones Riku had shown. "That would explain the composition... frequency over time... carry the five..." Riku was beginning to wonder if this was a waste of time. "Kupopo, I've got it!"

"Got what?" Riku asked, resisting the urge to cross her arms and start tapping her foot on the ground.

"We may be able to ship the synthesis products to you with our normal goods, kupo." The moogle was now talking very quickly. "There will be a slight export fee, of course, but the demographic discount and recipe loan markup should balance over time, not to mention the 99th sellback loophole, so any item Rank A or lower should go from raw to delivery in about 3 days, kupopopo." Riku didn't get everything the moogle had said, but it sounded like she could at least make more useful items from her minerals, even in Hollow Bastion.

"So I can still buy everything you sell here, even if I'm in Hollow Bastion?" Riku confirmed.

"Well, I haven't calculated for items above Rank A yet," the moogle hedged, "but the survival rate is so low that the financial risk is..." it fluttered its tiny wings nervously, "popopo, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, kupo."

"...Right." This time, Riku _did_ fold her arms as she stared back at the moogle.

"Are you sure you don't want an ear or two pierced? It's only 1500 munny for the first two holes!"

"Just get me the stuff I picked out," Riku said. One armband, ring, and Mega Moogle Membership later, she left the shop with a considerably lighter wallet. The moogle had also given her a 'token of appreciation' for the 'long distance plan', which was actually a rock, embedded with synthesis stones too small for practical use, though it was supposedly worth 'at least 30 to 50 munny on the open market'. It was mostly gray, with a little bit of blue, and while it made absolutely no sense at all, Riku couldn't help thinking she'd seen it somewhere before.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The only feature of the second district that could furnish Riku with information about Sora was the hotel, but when Riku went inside, there were neither employees nor customers, only Heartless. There were Heartless in the other areas of the second district as well, but they were dispatched just as easily as the other ones had been. It wasn't until Riku got to the third district that she actually found someone worth talking to for more than five seconds.

Specifically, she found Sora.

"There you are," Riku said, smiling. There had been a group of Heartless in the area only moments before, but Riku had simply summoned Soul Eater into her hand and defeated them.

"Is that..." he looked so _surprised_ to actually see her that it just ended up making Riku grin wider. He didn't look like he had his wooden sword on him, either, so it was definitely a good thing that Riku had arrived when she did.

"Hey, Sora," Riku said, and dismissed Soul Eater again. There were two things following him, but they didn't look like Heartless. The tall one was black and dressed in green, with floppy ears and a large nose like a dog. The shorter one only came up to Sora's elbow, and was dressed in blue, with white feathers and a beak like a duck. If they were animals, they were certainly very strange ones.

"...Riku?" He walked up to her and squished her cheeks together, like he was checking if she was real or not. Riku couldn’t help standing in place for a moment, blinking at the exuberance. It was like one minute, she’d been searching a strange town, talking only to strange people, and then the next, Sora was right in front of her. "I'm not dreaming, right?"

"H-Hey, cut it out." Riku batted his hands away lightly, trying to recover her poise, but she couldn't help laughing a little. Sora acted like such a kid sometimes, and it could cause a reaction in Riku anywhere from annoyance to exasperation to endearment. This time, though, Riku figured it was something more like endearment because it felt like it had been so long since she'd last seen him. "I hope it's not a dream," she responded, and while she said it a bit flippantly, it was honest. Riku had been worried about how Sora was doing, without her there to watch out for him, but seeing him laugh in return and fold his hands behind his neck like no time had passed at all was reassuring.

"But where's Kairi?" Sora asked a moment later, mood changing quickly.

"So she's not with you?" Riku didn't want to admit it, but it seemed Maleficent had been right about _that_ part, at least. The witch was obviously wrong about the other things she'd said, though; Sora was just like he'd always been. "Well, I'm sure Kairi's alright." She should be reassuring Sora right now, no matter her own private concerns. "I bet she's looking for us now, too." Now that Riku had found Sora, things could finally start falling into place.

She’d looked all over this place, and Kairi wasn't in Traverse Town, so Riku and Sora should get going. If Sora didn't have his wooden sword with him, then Riku would get hers out of her room in Hollow Bastion and let Sora use that one. That would keep Sora out of enough trouble, while Riku got rid of most of the Heartless with Soul Eater.

"I know things probably seem crazy," Riku continued, "but you don't need to worry because we'll all be together soon." She would figure out what happened to the Keyblade soon, too, and once Riku got it back, then there wouldn't be anything that could stand in her way. Riku and Sora would find Kairi, and then the three of them could go wherever they wanted. "Just leave everything to me, and-"

"Leave it to _who?_ " Riku spun around to face Sora again, and the disbelief was clear on her face. Where a Heartless had been only moments before, while Riku was distracted explaining things, there was now only Sora holding a bulky, strangely-shaped blade. He grinned and spun it in a flourish, from where it had once been outstretched in attack, to rest it on his shoulder.

"Sora, what-" Riku was so shocked that she was again unable to finish her sentence.

"I've been looking for you and Kairi," Sora said, "with their help." He gestured to the two things that had been following him before.

"Who are they?" Riku asked, though her tone was flat. Something felt really wrong about all this.

"Ahem," the shorter one quacked, "my name is-"

"We've been to a lot of worlds," Sora said. "I've been looking for you."

"Really," Riku replied, though she was starting to feel like a part of her was slowly closing off. She knew Maleficent had said that Sora was being more carefree than normal, but she hadn't expected that the witch would actually be _right_. Sora had just defeated Heartless with a magical sword, and he was just resting it on his shoulder the same as if it had been his normal wooden one, back on the islands. He was talking about two strange animals like they were as familiar as someone like Tidus or Selphie.

"Sora's the Keyblade Master now," the dog said, putting its hands on Sora's shoulders as if they'd known each other for years. Riku felt that same part of her not just close, but slam shut with a bang. Sora and the two animals started arguing about something - the likelihood of talking about Sora and the Keyblade in the same sentence, maybe - but Riku wasn't really listening. She just held out her hand and reached, and the blade Sora had been holding appeared obediently.

"So _this_ is a Keyblade..." Riku said, though it was mostly to herself. Now that she was examining it more closely, it _did_ resemble a large key, in silver and gold, with a keychain of interconnected circles attached on the end. It felt warm in her hand, and Riku realized that it was the exact same thing she'd held that night on the islands. The Keyblade responded to her easily enough, but... why was it with _Sora_ now?

"Hey," Sora said, finally noticing what Riku had done, "give it back!" He was pouting, too. Riku took a step back.

"Catch," she said, and she tossed it back to him. Sora checked the Keyblade over once before dismissing it from his hand.

"We've got this _awesome_ rocket," Sora grinned, pout gone just as quickly as it had arrived. "Wait 'til you see it!" He was probably talking about a Gummi Ship.

"No, she can't come!" the duck said.

"What?" Sora protested, not unlike the ones Sora used to give to his mom.The fact remained, though, that this wasn’t about Sora not being able to go outside because he had chores; Riku and Sora needed to find Kairi and make sure she was okay, and Riku could not think of a single good reason as to why the duck would object.

"We have a job to do," the duck said, crossing its wings and scowling at Sora. "Stop wasting time with some girl."Riku froze. On the other side of the thing that had slammed shut, Sora was giving some kind of protest to the duck again, but it just didn’t have the same force to it as whatever the duck was going on about. Whenever someone had made a comment about Riku’s gender before, she’d always proceeded to fight against it. She hadn’t been bothered by what other people had said because the important ones had still known who she really was. But how could she say anything right now when it looked like Sora was starting to agree with the duck? Had everything that Riku had done up until that point - living on the islands or experiencing the outside world, by herself or with others, no matter the reason she'd done it - been reduced to Riku being ' _some girl_ '? Just like that?

After that, it didn't really matter if Riku's expression betrayed her thoughts because Sora just wasn't paying attention. Riku realized that it also didn't matter what they were arguing about now, or what they were actually saying, because Sora would end up doing whatever the duck said. Underneath the part of her that had slammed shut, something started to smolder, and she turned around, leaving the same way she'd came. As always, Sora didn't notice.

Riku was about to go back to the second district when she saw Maleficent beckoning to her from a shadowy doorway. Not really caring much where she went that moment other than _away_ , Riku entered the building.

"You mustn't leave so soon," Maleficent said.

"Kairi wasn't with him," Riku replied, clipped. "Where is she?"

"Is that all you have to say?" Maleficent was studying her critically, but Riku was too preoccupied by the conversation she'd just had with Sora to care all that much. "Have you thought about what you're going to do next?"

"I don't know..." Riku didn't want to spend any more time with Maleficent than she had to, but she also didn't know where Kairi was yet. Sora was... Sora was here in Traverse Town, too, but Riku didn't really want to talk to him right now. Maybe she should still say something else to him, though, before he left to go with those animals somewhere else. Sora tended to miss things, sometimes, if they weren't spelled out for him, but if Riku just asked him to apologize flat-out, maybe he would listen. "I should talk to him again; maybe he'll apologize." If Sora apologized, then the two of them could figure out what to do about the Keyblade together.

"What makes you think he feels guilty about anything he's done?"

"How would you know?" Riku snapped. "You don't know what Sora's like."

"I understand you're upset, dear," Maleficent said, as if she was discussing something as mundane as the weather, "but one only needs to look at the facts. Take a look outside, if you don't believe me." Riku turned and went back outside.

There was a little house across the street, and there were people in there. If Riku looked closer, she could see that Sora was in the house as well, and those animals were still with him. Riku didn't bother caring about the animals, or the other humans she hadn't met, and studied Sora as he talked.

Sora certainly didn't _look_ apologetic. He didn't even look like he'd spoken to Riku at _all_. He was talking with the people inside, and he looked so _comfortable_ with them that it just made Riku angrier the longer she looked.

"It's just as I told you," Maleficent said calmly. "While you toiled away trying to find your dear friend, he quite simply replaced you with some new companions." Riku was both listening and not listening; most of her focus was still on watching Sora. "Evidently, he now values them _far_ more than he does you." Maleficent put her hand on Riku's shoulder, and Riku was so angry that she didn't really care if it stayed there or not. "You're better off without that wretched boy. Now, think no more of him and come with me. I'll help you find what you're searching for..."

Riku was silent for another few moments. Even though she and Maleficent were standing right outside the house, and had been for some time, no one _inside_ the house had looked out the window once.

"...I want to find Kairi," Riku said eventually. Maleficent held out her staff, forming a portal, and Riku followed the witch back to the castle in Hollow Bastion.


	8. Hollow Bastion, part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which some secrets are revealed, while others are not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feli did a bang-up job at betaing for this chapter, too!

Riku was wandering the halls of the castle, trying to make sense of what had happened in Traverse Town, when she ran across Ansem.

"Back from your trip already?" Ansem asked. "I thought you would have been gone for longer than this, at least."

"Yeah, well, there wasn't much point in staying," Riku replied, scowling and just continuing to walk. Ansem fell into step with her.

"Did things not go well?" Ansem inquired again. "Was that boy you were looking for not there?"

"Sora was there," Riku bit out, clipped, starting to get angry again, now that it had been brought to the forefront of her mind once more. "I don't think it really mattered to him, though."

"Did something happen? What did he do?"

"Sora, he..." He'd ignored Riku completely, was what he'd done, but Riku wasn't going to admit that to Ansem. Even the thing she was about to say was embarrassing enough to cause her to flush unhappily. "...he had the Keyblade."

"You mean he took your Keyblade from you?" Ansem's voice was gravely serious. "That would explain why you could not call it to your hand."

"That's not it," Riku shook her head. "I could hold it just fine when I was there, but it still felt like it was his." It had gone from belonging to Riku entirely to something she could only borrow temporarily. She knew the difference between how a Keyblade felt when it belonged to someone else, and how it had felt when it had been Riku's, that night the islands had been destroyed. "I don't get it."

"I know some information about the Keyblade," Ansem said. "I could help you get it back, if you gave me a little more detail. What was the boy like, when he had the Keyblade? Could he use it well?"

"I..." Thinking about what had happened in her meeting with Sora just made Riku more angry and confused. Trying to talk about it with Ansem wasn't helping. "I just need to be by myself for a while." Then, she ran off to go sort out her thoughts while fighting Heartless.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

_Report 1_

_Much of my life has been dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. That knowledge has guarded this world well._

Riku'd finally found another one of those strange papers. It even seemed to be written by the same person.

_Not a soul doubts that I am blessed with my people's smiles and respect. But though I am called a sage, there are things I do not understand._

The person who wrote them hadn't just lived in the castle; they'd been the _ruler_ of it.

_I believe darkness sleeps in every heart no matter how pure. Given the chance, the smallest drop can spread and-_

"What are you doing?" Once again, Riku had been interrupted halfway through. She looked up, irritated, to find Maleficent there, and the witch appeared to be just as displeased herself, from the sharpness in her voice to her frown to the way her hand was gripping her staff very tightly.

"I'm in a library," Riku said. "I'm reading.” Maleficent didn't take the hint.

"I can see that, Riku," she responded. "What are you reading?"

"A paper." Maleficent only looked more annoyed. She'd encouraged Riku to use the library, so why was she getting mad now?

"That paper does not belong to you. Give it to me." Maleficent held her hand out.

"I bet it doesn't belong to you, either," Riku said, then bent her head to finish reading. It belonged to the person who had written it, right? Riku _knew_ that hadn't been Maleficent. Before she could continue, however, Maleficent snapped her fingers, and the paper disappeared from Riku's hands in a puff of green smoke. Riku snapped her head back up, no bothering to hide the frustration she was feeling from showing on her face. "I wasn't _finished_ with that," she ground out.

"You will cease this insolence," Maleficent declared, glancing at the paper that was now in her long, spindly hands briefly, before putting it into the folds of her robes. "I have another meeting soon, so get the table ready. After that, you will go outside to train instead of wasting time reading about things that are none of your business."

"I've done a lot of training," Riku retorted. "I can make a portal now." She'd been practicing almost nonstop since she got back to the castle from her last trip, and today, she'd finally accomplished it. Thinking about what had happened in Traverse Town just kept making her more and more angry and frustrated, so she'd put all those feelings into training and trying to make a portal. There were a good number of false starts, at first, but once she got into the rhythm, both her thoughts and powers slowly became more productive.

The first time Riku made a portal, it made her knees buckle to even hold it open for a few moments. After she knew she could do it once, though, she just downed another magic-recharging-ether and tried again. The second time was easier, and she was determined, so it was only a few more tries, really, until she was able to open and close it at will. With this, her thoughts coalesced from confusion into determination.

If Sora was going around playing Keyblade Master with a Keyblade that used to be Riku's, flying with those stupid animals in his loud, obnoxious Gummi Ship without a thought in his head about ' _girls_ ' like her or Kairi, then Riku was just going to have to alter her plans slightly. She would find Kairi, and she would be able to do it with Soul Eater and the portals, and she would explain to Kairi what had happened. Riku and Kairi would go to Sora, and Sora would find out just how wrong he had been, and he would apologize and give Riku her Keyblade back, and he would listen, and then things would be right again.

When Riku was able to make a portal both to another part of the castle and off-world, she considered it a success and decided she’d earned a break. She hadn't gone through any of the portals she'd made, but figuring out how to make one made her almost as tired. After a quick stop to the kitchens to swipe some food, she decided to look through the library for another of those papers. To her excitement, she actually discovered another one, stuck between the pages of _Fighting Lactose Intolerance_ , and had begun to read, enthralled once more.

Maleficent though, had chosen the worst possible time to interrupt her. Riku _still_ didn't know who had written those papers, but at least she had a better idea of what the person had been like. She just didn't understand why Maleficent had chosen to take the paper away.

“Can you really make a portal?" Maleficent challenged, still looking unimpressed. "Show me." Riku, still irritated, stuck out her arm to the side, and a moment later, a swirling, blue-black portal appeared at her fingertips. "Where does it go?"

"The gardens outside Charlotte's mansion in New Orleans."

"Now dismiss it." Riku did so. Maleficent's expression changed from a look of anger to one of calculation. "…Very well. Since you have finally made some progress, I will excuse today's disobedience. I will also factor our progress into the meeting today, so expect another off-world mission soon." She smiled. "Use of the dark portal can be a drain, however, as I assume you've found out, so do keep in mind to use them conservatively and not overstrain your heart."

"You seem more worried about that paper than you do about me." Riku could do without Maleficent's fake concern, but at least she was going to be able to go to another world soon.

"I simply want to protect you from bad influences," Maleficent replied, tone heavy with sweetness.

"Do you mean influences that aren't you?" Riku asked, not fooled in the least by that kind of cajoling from the witch. How could someone adored by all the people of their world possibly be a bad influence, anyway? _Maleficent_ was probably the bad influence here. Riku was only going to stay in this castle until she found Kairi anyway.

“Go set up the table for my meeting,” Maleficent said, frowning once more. Riku turned and stormed out of the library, boots clacking satisfyingly loudly on the stones. All the do-this-do-that was only temporary, she decided; once she was reunited with Kairi, she would leave Maleficent and her machinations _far_ behind.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Late that same evening, after she was sure Maleficent had gone to her rooms, Riku snuck downstairs to the chapel. It took some time because Riku had to make sure she stayed silent and out of sight of most of the mechanical lighting on the way there, but once she was actually in the chapel, she couldn't help grinning. Tonight was the night. The torches lining the long hallway leading up to the main area of the chapel were dimmed, their green flames having shrunk once the rest of the castle had gone to sleep, and it was easy to stay out of sight from them. Looking out the few windows on the outside wall revealed only blackness, what few stars that were visible from this world overpowered by even the dimmed flame. The only other illumination to the area was from the panel of stained glass on the ceiling at the other end, the moon painting a faint circle of blue on the flagstones. Once Riku'd finished walking down the long hallway, she moved to edge around the circle of moonlight, towards the corridor leading to the hall beyond.

"Riku, what are you doing in here so late at night?" Riku paused, then turned around slowly.

"Ansem," she said, making sure to keep her voice calm. Although he’d spoken at a seemingly normal volume, his voice easily carried down the hallway; it made the feet between them seem much smaller than they actually were. "Did I wake you up accidentally?" She was slowly getting used to his sudden appearances, but she was _sure_ that she'd been quiet.

"No, I was already awake," Ansem responded. "Were you going somewhere, Riku?" Riku couldn't help feeling nervous, being caught red-handed like this, though she hoped there was still a way to blow it off somehow. "To the hall beyond the chapel, perhaps?" His tone was heavy. For some reason, the fact that he seemed disappointed bothered Riku more than the idea that Maleficent might get angry at her again.

"...Yeah," Riku admitted, glancing at the corridor before turning her attention back to Ansem. She should be honest with him instead of pretending she wasn’t trying to explore the hall. "Are you going to tell Maleficent I was disobeying her again?"

"Again? What happened?"

"I got into an argument with her earlier today," Riku explained, her earlier annoyance at Maleficent rising to the front of her mind again. "I've been training a lot, and I can even make a portal now, but she just keeps acting like I'm improving too slowly, and she keeps hiding stuff from me."

"I hadn't known you could make a portal, Riku," Ansem said, sounding less disappointed than before. "That progress is nothing to scoff at. Perhaps Maleficent is merely being strict because she has high expectations for you." Riku just frowned and crossed her arms. "Unfortunately, I think she will be quite upset with me as well if I allow you to go into the hall without her, but I could speak to her about showing you herself, at another time. Why don't we walk some, and you can tell me more about what's been bothering you." Riku considered this.

She really wanted to see what made the hall past the chapel so forbidden, if Ansem was agreeing with Maleficent about keeping her out. But if Ansem was also saying he would talk to Maleficent about letting her do more things, or going more places like off-world or special halls, then maybe Riku could wait a little bit longer. Maybe if Riku talked to Ansem about her argument with Maleficent in the library, she might find out more information about the papers, or the person who'd lived in this castle.

"...Alright," Riku said, walking up to Ansem so they could leave the chapel.

"Excellent," he responded, falling into step with Riku as they went towards the lifts again. "Now, tell me about this incident with Maleficent earlier today."

"I was taking a break from training," Riku said, "since I finally got the portals to work, so I was in the library." She held her breath for a moment, as she looked at Ansem from the corner of her eye, thinking about their previous encounter in the library, but she put it out of her mind. It had only been that one time, and Ansem was trying to help her. He’d volunteered to talk to Maleficent, and Riku still needed all the information she could get.

"Go on," Ansem said. They were walking vaguely in the direction of the carpeted areas higher in the castle, but Riku’s mind was more on trying to figure out how to best say what had happened.

"I found something else," Riku replied, though she still didn't mention the strangeness of the paper, "like that thing about the meteors I told you earlier."

"Was it more information about the Gummi Blocks?"

"No," Riku shook her head, "it was about a person living in the castle, I think." She frowned again. "I think they were written by the same person."

"A person?" Ansem asked. "What sort of person?"

"This castle..." Riku looked around briefly. The castle was so large, and had so many devices and contraptions. Whoever had written the paper had talked about a large amount of people living in their world, too, and the people had been supportive of the author. What had happened to this world that deserted it like this, letting Maleficent be the one in charge? And how had it happened? "Someone was in charge of this place before Maleficent, I think. Some sort of ruler, when there were still a lot of people here." She frowned again. "So I think that's why Maleficent took what I was reading when she saw it, and why she won't tell me anything." Riku couldn't help letting out a small, frustrated sigh. "I didn't even get to finish it again..."

"I was unaware that Maleficent would go to such lengths to keep information from you..." Ansem’s voice trailed off. It was times like these that Riku wished she could see what sort of expression he was wearing underneath his hood. "It is no wonder you decided to find the answers on your own." Riku nodded in agreement. "I will speak to Maleficent about this; keeping you out of the loop is not the answer."

"Thanks," Riku said.

"Think nothing of it," Ansem responded. "That information you found, however, sounds fascinating."

"I think there must be more like it in the library somewhere," Riku said. If there were two, and if Maleficent had known what they were about, then there _had_ to be others. "Maleficent knows, she's just not telling."

"I might be able to help you look for this information," Ansem said. The two of them were still walking. "I would like to read more, myself, and I am sure I could assist you in finding it, with a bit more detail." Riku had hesitated about describing the papers themselves, but... Ansem was going to help her, right? As long as she didn't mention the parts in the writing about the door, it should be fine.

"It sounds weird..." Riku started. "but what I found wasn't actually a book."

"Really?" Ansem sounded interested again. "What was it?"

"Some type of paper," Riku answered, "and it was handwritten, not printed. It actually sounded like some sort of diary, but it was formal, too." She debated how to phrase the next part, but Ansem seemed to be willing to wait for her to speak. "The two papers I found seemed to be talking about different things, but they were definitely written by the same person. I think there are other parts, but I'm not sure if they would be talking about the person, or the blocks, or something else."

"That is quite the puzzle," Ansem said, and stopped walking. Riku stopped as well, slightly puzzled herself, then realized that they were standing in the hall outside Riku's bedroom. "I would suggest that you wait until the morning for further searching, though. Maleficent will likely keep you busy tomorrow, and you should spend tonight resting."

"Right..." Riku said. Maleficent had hinted about another off-world mission for Riku. "Goodnight."

"Until tomorrow," Ansem said, inclining his head at Riku. Riku nodded back, then went to go into her room. Just before she entered, she turned back around, about to thank Ansem for talking to Maleficent again, but the hallway was already empty.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next day, Riku's training was cut short by an appearance from Maleficent. There were still Heartless in the area, though, so Riku continued fighting until they were gone. Maleficent was silent during this, and once all the Heartless were defeated, Riku walked up to her.

"You _have_ been improving," Maleficent said, pleased.

"Yeah," Riku agreed. It was about time she was starting to be recognized for her efforts.

"In light of your recent progress," Maleficent continued, "and considering the conversation we had yesterday, I believe it is time to give you a new set of tasks. It was not my intention to cause you distress; you must understand that I was simply being cautious about our greater ambitions." It sounded like Ansem had talked to her, after all. "However, I must inform you of certain things before your next task, so please follow me."

"What's the next task?" Riku asked, following Maleficent to the chapel. The stained-glass images from the windows rippled like waves off the back of the witch’s robes as they walked down the hallway.

"You will be assisting Jafar in a task on his home world of Agrabah," Maleficent said. "If you complete this task for us, I would be very grateful."

"Are you going to find Kairi?" She was excited about getting to go off-world again, but she had to make sure Kairi was taken care of first before she focused completely on anything else.

"That girl has been quite difficult to locate," Maleficent responded, "but I am sure it will not be long before you are reunited with her." So it was a trade. That was fine with Riku, though; she preferred it when things were clearer.

"What's the mission this time?" she asked.

"I want you to find a certain girl for me, Riku."

"A princess?" Riku guessed. Maleficent smiled.

"Precisely. Find her, and then bring her to me."

"What do you want me to say to her? What if I can’t convince her to go?" This mission sounded deceptively simple, but Riku was pretty sure things were a lot more complicated under the surface.

"Find her," Maleficent repeated, still smiling, "and bring her to me." Did it not matter to Maleficent if the princess wanted to go or not? Riku’s enthusiasm dampened into a strange feeling in her stomach. They'd arrived at the chapel by now, and Maleficent continued to the hall beyond. "Come, there is something I must show you. Perhaps this will make things clearer for you." Riku followed, though she was still suspicious. There was only a short corridor between the chapel and the hall, but when Riku actually stepped into the hall itself, her mouth dropped open.

The hall was composed of two layers, with a long, narrower part leading up to a higher, round level. There seemed to be a lot of machinery on the second level, but it was the contents of the lower hall that had caught Riku's attention first. Lining the carpet running down the center of the hall were low braziers with green flame, and the light from the flames lit up the walls, which were lined with a series of crystal containers. Inside five of the containers were what could only be called princesses, standing with eyes closed, in suspended animation. It was when she looked at the two empty containers that she realized what she was supposed to do on her next mission.

"You _are_ a witch," Riku said, spinning to face Maleficent.

"We can't all be princesses," Maleficent shrugged, still smiling. "I thought you, of all people, would understand that.” Her attempt at flattery only made Riku more uneasy. Just because Riku wasn’t a princess, it didn’t make her a _witch_. “Though you needn't be concerned about their well-being; they're sleeping quite peacefully, I assure you."

"Why are they here? What's going on?"

"There I something I must do, and I need to borrow their power for a little bit. Once my goal is accomplished, they will be free to go."

"This is _insane_." Riku’s head spun just thinking about it. She was supposed to be _protecting_ princesses, not kidnapping them for some witch's evil schemes.

"Why, Riku, I'm almost disappointed," Maleficent said, turning serious once more. Riku shot her a questioning look. "Is your dedication towards your friend Kairi so easily swayed?" Then, Riku paused, the fists she'd formed with her hands slowly unclenching.

"...What does Kairi have to do with this?"

"You're not seeing the forest for the trees, my dear," Maleficent continued. "Why are you wasting your energy worrying about a few girls you do not know - that are quite safe, mind you - when you could be using this as an opportunity to reunite with the girl who is truly important to you? Would you abandon her to wander the worlds by herself, when it is now that she needs you most?” And Riku thought about that.

Of course Kairi was important. Riku had spent a good amount of time worrying about how Kairi was doing, and she knew that if Sora was off with those animals and the Keyblade instead of looking for Kairi that it was up to Riku and Riku alone to make sure Kairi stayed safe. She'd told herself that she would reunite with Kairi again, and she'd been working very hard to be able to fulfill that claim.

When it came down to the essentials, the most important thing for Riku to do now was to find Kairi and keep her protected. Did telling herself that she was going to be a prince even mean anything if she didn't have the guts to actually _be_ that prince for the one person who really needed it? Nothing else was as important, so there was no point in worrying about what Maleficent wanted to do. If finding Kairi and keeping her safe meant that Riku had to do whatever it took, then that's what Riku would do.

Agreeing to this now meant that there was no turning back, but Riku had never been indecisive. She would help Kairi no matter what, and if this was how it was going to happen, then so be it.

"...I'll do it," Riku said, mouth in a thin line. "Just tell me when it's time to leave." Maleficent was smiling again, but Riku didn't want to look at her anymore. Let the witch think she had Riku around her little finger; if keeping Kairi safe meant that Riku had to do whatever it took, then not even Maleficent was exempt from that rule. Riku took one last glance around the hall, from the princesses to the machinery to the large design on the far wall.

The design was a large, metal frame, in the same three-pronged-heart shape as the emblem on the front of the castle and most of the Heartless, but unlike those other two emblems, this one didn’t have the thorns crossing its middle. The center of the frame seemed to constantly be changing color like a thick, magical curtain. It was… something strange, but whatever it was, it didn’t seem to be finished yet. Somehow, Riku knew that this frame, with the symbol of darkness, needed to absorb more power to work. Riku wondered what would happen once Maleficent found all the princesses she wanted, and as her head buzzed with different thoughts, she left the hall.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Riku had gone back to training after she left the hall beyond the chapel, but it was difficult to concentrate. She was defeating the Heartless she'd found easily enough, but her mind was on other things.

Maleficent would probably send Riku to Agrabah either today or tomorrow, and Riku would have to find the princess and bring her back, willing or no. She had to keep Kairi in mind, though; it was taking so much longer to find her than it had taken to find Sora, and Kairi would need Riku there to keep her safe. Still, fighting Heartless wasn't as distracting as usual, and Riku just kept thinking about how everything was changing so quickly, lately.

She was only pulled out of her thoughts when she felt someone watching her.

Riku threw herself back into the fight with the Heartless, determined to get rid of them as quickly as possible. She spun her head around as she did so, trying to find the source of the gaze she felt studying her every move, but no matter where she looked, it was just the Heartless that had been here before. Even when the Heartless were gone, the other presence was still there. She could... smell it, somehow.

"Who's there?" Riku called, looking around once more. After a few moments, a figure melted out of one of the more shadowy corners of the courtyard.

"You're usually more focused than this, Riku," Ansem said. Had he used a portal? Or had he been there the whole time? It was hard to tell, but at least it explained how he had seemed to appear and disappear so suddenly in the past.

"...I've been thinking," Riku replied, dismissing Soul Eater from her hand. "Maleficent gave me another mission off-world. Were you watching me fight?"

"I've done it a few times before, as well," Ansem said. "I think this is the first time you've noticed, though." He'd watched Riku train before? Why _hadn't_ she noticed him until now? "It's good that Maleficent is giving you more missions. I presume she showed you the Grand Hall?"

"Yeah," Riku said, though she didn't volunteer any further information.

"Your powers are developing," Ansem continued. "The skill you have just learned can be very useful, by the way." He sounded pleased.

"I can smell you," Riku said bluntly. It was something both thick and sharp that made her slightly lightheaded if she concentrated on it fully, and it reminded her of that time in the library. Riku realized a moment later, though, how strange her telling Ansem he smelled sounded, and she put a hand over her mouth, flushing. Ansem laughed.

"Can you, now?" He chuckled again. "Don't worry, that is actually a very good way to describe it. Each person is different, so you will sense them all differently." Each person had their own scent? It was both completely confusing and made perfect sense at the same time.

"A while ago," Riku ventured, "Maleficent said that I smelled like I'd been fighting Heartless." It had made her really mad, too, but maybe this was what the witch had been talking about. "Do Heartless have their own scent, too?"

"Things like the darkness can have a scent," Ansem responded. "You will discover more as you experience a wider variety of things, I am sure. Speaking of that..." He paused, as if he was trying to think of how to phrase something.

"What is it?" Riku asked.

"Ah, yes," Ansem said. "I wanted to apologize for interrupting your training. You should continue, don't you think?" He raised a hand, and two Heartless appeared. One was armored, with large, hulking muscles, in the vague shape of some sort of canine, with its grimacing head on the front of a shield it was holding rather than on top of the stump of its neck. The other was small, floating about a foot off the ground, in robes and a pointed, wide-brimmed hat, holding some sort of wand. Both the Heartless were saying put, though, probably because Ansem was keeping them there.

"Is that your job for Maleficent?" Riku called Soul Eater back to her hand. "Finding Heartless for her to use?" After the revelation of what was actually _in_ the Grand Hall earlier that day, the knowledge that Ansem could control the Heartless just like Maleficent didn't shock her that much.

"Most of it," Ansem confirmed, "though I'm sure she has found some of my other areas of expertise useful, as well." He didn't elaborate, and it only made Riku more curious as to what he was talking about. "But enough talking. You should be practicing."

"Against those?"

"You'll find them a tad more difficult than normal," Ansem explained, "but if you can defeat them, I'll show you something I think you'll find interesting."

"Alright," Riku said, sliding into her battle stance. Even if those Heartless _were_ tougher, Riku could still beat them. She wanted to find out what sort of thing he’d found, and she also wanted to prove that she could concentrate better.

“Wonderful.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Fighting the two Heartless was actually more complicated than Riku had first thought. They didn't operate in swarms like most of the other Heartless Riku had fought, but instead like two complimentary halves of a whole. Riku had fought other groups with specialized types of Heartless as well, but with these two, whatever weakness one had the other made up for.

The smaller one was the obvious first target, since it could shoot magic and seemed to be physically weaker, but it kept hovering out of reach. When Riku tried to attack it, the armored Heartless would move in front of it, blocking and snapping with the jaws on the front of its shield. If Riku wrestled to get behind the armored one, the smaller one would zap her with its magic. Even if Riku took a few steps back to reassess the situation, she discovered that the armored one could also charge at her or blow jets of flame and ice from its shield.

If Riku was going to beat these things, then she needed to think of something unexpected. She downed a potion to lessen the sting of some of the magic burns, then studied the Heartless' movements some more. If she tried to force her way forward, she would just be hitting a brick wall while the magic picked her off. If she took a step back, the armored one would attack. It'd probably be bad if it chose to use the flame jet, but if it charged instead...

Quickly, Riku rushed to the side as the armored one barreled toward her. She only dodged it by a hair, but that was enough. Before the two Heartless had a chance to regroup, Riku jumped at the small one and struck, knocking it off-balance as it flailed its wand indignantly at her. Out of the corner of her eye, the armored one was turning around to rejoin the fight, so Riku hit the small one again before jumping out of the way.

The two Heartless were back together again, but now Riku had a plan. Learning the pattern of the Heartless' attack had been a bit painful, but they were still creatures of habit. After a few more repeats of her attack plan - most of them successful, and with another potion for the ones that weren't - the small Heartless was defeated, and Riku could focus her full attention on the large one. Now that it was isolated, Riku could sneak around it to hit the vulnerable parts the shield couldn't cover. Soon after, that one fell, too, and Riku finally relaxed. She was sore and stung, but at least she had won.

“…Finally,” Riku sighed, mostly to herself, breathing hard and wiping the sweat from her brow. Now, she could find out-

“One more,” Ansem said in an amiable tone. “Losing concentration would be unwise. This one is called a Neoshadow.” Riku could only spare a few seconds to just _stare_ at him, mouth hanging open slightly, and then she was hastily downing a potion because he’d already summoned it. Then she charged forward with a yell because she definitely wanted to hit that thing before _it_ got the chance to hit _her_. The Heartless had a body of pure black, no thorned-heart emblem that was present on so many others, and the only contrasting color was the yellow of its eyes. It was similar to the Shadows Riku had faced many times before, but it was twice as large, almost as tall as Riku herself, and instead of the roundness of the Shadows, its body was lean and muscled. Its antennae were longer as well, reaching almost to the ground in long, jagged arcs, and it studied Riku with the animalistic intelligence of a sharp, wicked cat.

Even as Riku clashed with the Heartless, she could tell that it was easily as strong as the two previous Heartless combined. What disconcerted her most about it, however, wasn’t the force of its tackles or the sharpness of its claws; it was that she could _tell_ it had once been human. There was once a person, and they got consumed by darkness, or a Heartless got them and ate their heart, and then what was once human turned into this vicious, cold _thing_. It was better to put it out of its misery, probably, but Riku couldn’t feel sorry for it. The only thing Riku wanted to do was kill it so that it would stop _looking_ at her like that or reaching for her heart to make her just like itself, so the only thing she concentrated on was fighting it and killing it. There were a couple times when Riku wasn’t sure she was going to win, and the Heartless would knock her off her feet or draw blood, but Riku just picked herself back up and ignored her injuries because she couldn’t think of anything worse than losing to that thing. Eventually, exhausted but unwilling to give up, Riku won.

“That was very well done, Riku,” Ansem said, as what was once the Heartless dissolved into black smoke. Riku gulped down another potion to stop most of the bleeding and bent slightly, hands on her knees, to catch her breath. She still kept Soul Eater in a tight grip, though, more due to reflex than anything else. “Shall I show you something interesting?”

Riku looked up at Ansem and blinked a few times. She'd been so focused on fighting that last Heartless that it took her a moment to remember this was actually a training exercise.

"What is it?" she asked, standing up straight again and dismissing Soul Eater. Ansem started walking up to her slowly.

"After I spoke with Maleficent this morning," Ansem said, "I did a bit of searching, and I was fortuitous enough to come across this." He pulled a paper out of his robes.

"Is that...?" Riku half-asked, half-guessed. Ansem nodded and held out the paper. Riku walked up the rest of the way to him and took it, unable to keep the grin from her face. Her vicious battle against the Heartless only minutes ago no longer seemed as taxing. "You actually found one!" It was on the same kind of paper as the other two Riku had seen, in the same handwritten cursive. She began to read, once again completely absorbed by the mystery.

_Report 3_

_The shadows that crawl beneath the castle... Are they the people who lost their hearts, or incarnations of darkness? Or something entirely beyond imagination?_

"This is talking about the Heartless..." Riku spoke out loud as she realized it. All the papers seemed to be about different things, at first, but there had to be some sort of thread connecting them. Both this paper and the one about the castle's ruler had been talking about the castle, and the darkness.

_All my knowledge has provided no answer. One thing I'm sure of is that they are entirely devoid of emotion. Perhaps further study will unlock the mysteries of the heart._

Was that what the person writing the papers was interested in? Hearts? Or was it what had been happening to the world when the Heartless arrived?

But unlocking things... The first report Riku had found had talked about opening a door, and to open a door, it had to be unlocked with a Keyblade first, right? So the person writing this had to have known about the Keyblade. But just _how_ had that person known, anyway?

_Fortunately, there is no shortage of test samples. They are multiplying underground even as I write this report. They still need a name. Those who lack hearts... I will call them the Heartless._

This person was the one who _discovered_ the Heartless, weren't they? Or they were the first person on this world to discover them, at least.

While the body of the paper seemed to be done, at least, there was one more piece of writing on it, and it was the most shocking part of all. At the bottom of the paper, was the signature of the author. Suddenly, all the pieces of the puzzle clicked into place at once.

"You..." Riku said, whipping her head up to look at Ansem, who was still standing in front of her. " _You_ wrote this."

"I did," Ansem confirmed.

"Did you write other ones too?" Ansem nodded once.

"But you... Then..." It felt like Riku had a thousand questions, and she had no idea which one to ask first. Everything about it was the same as when Ansem had explained the scents to her; it was both completely surprising and completely unsurprising at the same time. "...Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"You seemed so interested," Ansem replied, "that I thought I'd make a little game of it." Riku still couldn't see the expression he was wearing underneath the hood, even though Ansem was standing fairly close, but he definitely sounded amused. "I must say, I'm quite flattered by the enthusiasm."

"I, um..." Riku still wasn't used to the way Ansem spoke, sometimes, even without the shock of discovering he'd been the one writing the papers. She should press on and find out more information, though. "There used to be a lot of people on this world, right?" Ansem nodded again. "But everyone is gone now, and Maleficent is in charge..." Riku paused, thinking about the strange situation again. "...What happened?"

"As I believe I told you before," Ansem said, "I fell ill some time ago."

"Yeah." Was Ansem's illness related to how he lost the castle?

"I'd rather not go into the details, but... Maleficent can very cunning, and she had quite a large number of Heartless at her command." He paused for a moment, and Riku found herself wondering what he was thinking. It sounded like the memory of Maleficent taking over wasn't a pleasant one. "Maleficent allows me to live in the castle, as long as I assist her with some things, but there is only so much I can accomplish in my present state."

"But Maleficent is helping you get better, right?" Riku asked.

"She is." That reminder, at least, seemed to pull Ansem out of his unpleasant memories of the past.

"So what are you gonna do once you get better? Are you planning on taking the castle back?" It didn't seem like Maleficent would help someone who was competing with her for the castle and this world. "No one lives here anymore." Ansem laughed.

"Are you going to tell Maleficent if I say what my plans are?" Riku remained silent. She didn't _like_ Maleficent, but she needed her to find Kairi. Riku also thought Ansem was very interesting, but she didn't want to be caught in the middle of a power struggle between Ansem and Maleficent, either. "I have to say, though, that while I _am_ looking forward to carrying out my plans when the time is right," from the tone in his voice, it sounded like Ansem was smiling just thinking about it, "I hope you will understand it's best if I don't reveal my hand just yet."

"I guess…" Riku said. She wasn't really sure what he was planning on doing, but she figured that as long as she found Kairi first, she wouldn't have to worry too much about whether Ansem and Maleficent would fight each other or not.

"But enough of that," Ansem said, tone still pleased. "There are still things we can discuss in the present. If I'm correct, there is something else that has been on your mind for some time, yes? Regarding my reports?" Riku tensed.

“Something else?” she repeated, though she had to look away. Now that he'd brought it up again, Riku's mind was filled again with all her other questions about the papers.

"You must have other questions, right?" Ansem prodded. "You were quite reticent when we first spoke of the reports." Riku gnawed on her lip for a moment.

"You... you discovered the Heartless, right?" It was another question she'd had, so she could at least ask that for now. The other subject on her mind was burning in her throat like a hot coal, but unlike questions about the Heartless or the Gummi Blocks, she couldn't talk about _that_. "Do you know why there's so many of them?"

"Darkness is something that exists in every heart," Ansem responded. "It is in its nature to sprout, grow, and eventually consume the heart. But one must cultivate darkness in the heart properly." He talked about the darkness like it was some sort of plant, which reminded Riku of the thorned design on some of the pronged-heart symbols of the castle and Heartless. "With proper time and direction, it will not only grow and bud but blossom into something that is worth the effort. Only those with the strongest hearts can use the darkness and not lose themselves, but instead make themselves more powerful." Riku knew that darkness existed, and she knew that it could make someone more powerful, but she didn't like the idea of it inevitably swallowing everything. She needed to use the darkness to find Kairi, but she still couldn't think of anything worse than becoming like a Heartless. "The Heartless follow those whose power is the greatest; there is no need to fear them, nor the darkness to which they are drawn."

"I'm not afraid," Riku replied vehemently, though the image of the Neoshadow rose in her mind as she said it. She just didn't _like_ the Heartless, and she didn't want Ansem to get the wrong idea. There was no room for fear or doubt, and so she had stamped it out because she needed to focus on doing whatever it took to make sure Kairi was okay.

"That is very reassuring to hear," Ansem said. "You are already quite strong, if what I have seen of your performance today is indicative of your skill, but you must become even stronger, if you wish to get the Keyblade back." Once again, Riku was suddenly unsure of what to say, or what she _could_ say.

"But Sora has the Keyblade now," Riku said, swallowing. How could she get it back? Riku remembered the previous conversation she'd had with Ansem about the Keyblade, right after she'd gotten back from Traverse Town.

"I want to see you succeed, Riku," Ansem said, "but no matter how much knowledge I have, I cannot help you if you do not tell me what's on your mind." Riku frowned again. She _really_ wanted the Keyblade back, but she had to be careful when it came to this subject.

"I... I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about it," she said, slightly subdued. She couldn't be a real prince if she didn't have the Keyblade, so it was important to keep her word about it. "I made a promise to someone."

"Ah, that would explain things." Ansem sounded thoughtful. "That's very noble of you, Riku, but keep in mind that I am always willing to assist you, should you request it." Riku made a noncommittal noise; she was still too tense to either fully agree or fully disagree. "I suppose this is where we must end our conversation, then. You will likely have many things to prepare before your next mission for Maleficent."

"...Sorry," Riku said. Even though Ansem made Riku nervous sometimes, she recognized that he was trying to be helpful. She had to work harder, and once she found Kairi, Sora would apologize. Once Riku got her keyblade back, _then_ she might be able to judge better what questions she could ask.

"I understand," Ansem replied. "Until next time." He bowed to Riku in that strange way he often did, then turned and shuffled out of the courtyard and around a corner, disappearing from sight.

"Yeah..." Riku said, though she was alone, and then went to get her supplies together.


	9. Agrabah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a princess is delivered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many many thanks to Feli for helping me work through this when I was stuck :)

Riku didn't spend that much time in Agrabah. Jafar had sneered at the idea of help from Riku, though he still made her search the royal palace for Princess Jasmine. Riku was getting more annoyed by the minute, and she wasn't sure how much longer it was going to be before she got fed up completely.

"You stupid girl," Jafar snapped, dismissing the Heartless Riku was fighting. "What are you doing attacking those Heartless? They're on our side, and unlike _you_ , little rat, they are searching for the princess instead of wasting my time and resources."

"They attacked me first," Riku retorted, letting Soul Eater vanish for the moment and crossing her arms. She had been minding her own business, searching the palace, when the Heartless, who had been searching another room, found her and decided to jump her unawares. "If you don't want them to get destroyed, then keep better control of them next time." Riku also objected to being called a _rat_ just because she wasn't some high-and-mighty royal.

"Do not be so presumptuous as to tell me how to control my own Heartless," Jafar replied, still sneering, "not when you haven't found Jasmine yet."

"The princess isn't in the palace," Riku said. "I've looked everywhere. She has to be somewhere in the city." Jafar sighed in a put-upon manner.

"I should have known," he frowned. "I suspect I know who she's with, so you are dismissed. Your services are no longer needed. Go back to Hollow Bastion."

"Are you serious?" Riku protested. “I just got here this morning!”

"If you wish to continue blathering," Jafar said, "then do it to Maleficent. My time is more valuable." Then, he left in a portal, presumably to go to the city. Riku left in her own portal back to Hollow Bastion. It was unfortunate that she did so, since Maleficent wasn't in the chapel, only Hades.

"Back so soon, Moonflower?"

"...What?" Riku said. She was still slightly disoriented from going through the portal, so the awful nickname didn't register at first. A moment later, it _did_ register, and Riku took a reflexive step away from Hades. "Where's Maleficent?"

"Her Supreme Maliciousness is still lending a hand to Jafar." Hades gestured to the center of the table, which seemed to be projecting an image of Jafar and Maleficent talking in the city of Agrabah, with a red bird sitting on Jafar's shoulder and some Heartless in the background. There wasn't any sound accompaniment, but from the looks on Jafar and Maleficent's faces, the two of them were arguing. "I can appreciate playing hooky every now and then," Hades grinned at her in the leering way he usually did, "but I thought you'd stay a bit longer." Riku was beginning to wish she'd stayed in Agrabah a bit longer, herself.

"I was helping look for the princess," Riku replied. "I don't have any other reason to be there." She also didn't appreciate Jafar’s stuck-up attitude. Hades sighed dramatically.

"Just when we're about to get to the best part, too." Hades was looking at Riku instead of the projection, though. "I know it’s an expression, but when _you_ feel scorned, your cold shoulder is _extra_ frosty."

"What are you talking about?" Riku asked flatly. She looked back at the projection of Agrabah, just in case, but it was still only Jafar, Maleficent, and the Heartless. She didn't have much patience for the way Hades tended to insinuate things, either, and this was no exception.

"Oh, only that a certain spiky-haired nuisance was spotted in the area recently..." Was he talking about _Sora?_ Maleficent hadn't mentioned that part. Hades grinned when he saw Riku's surprise. "You didn't get the memo? Well, just remember, Moonflower, you've got to-” Luckily, Maleficent chose that moment to appear back in the chapel. Even better, Hades stopped talking.

"It's a fool who refuses aid to keep his pride," the witch said disdainfully. She glanced at Riku for a moment. "I assume you have returned for the same reason?” For the first time that day, Riku didn’t feel like she was being ignored or dismissed. She nodded at Maleficent, not bothering to hide one bit of her annoyance from showing on her face.

"Despite Jafar's actions up to this point," Maleficent continued, "there may yet be a task for you, so wait in the Grand Hall for now." Riku nodded. She almost asked if Sora was really in Agrabah before she reminded herself that there wasn’t anyone in Agrabah she wasn’t angry with.

The Grand Hall was mostly the same as it had been when Maleficent had shown Riku the day before, only one of the glass panels on an empty crystal container was missing. Jasmine was going to go there, probably. The other princesses looked so strange in their own containers, and while they weren't breathing, Riku could still tell, somehow, that they were alive. Since Maleficent wasn't here to watch Riku's every move, however, Riku took this opportunity to explore the rest of the hall.

After walking up the steps to the second level of the hall, Riku spun in a slow circle to look at everything properly. There were many large pipes and machines on the second level, bronze gleaming and multicolored smoke puffing out occasionally. There was a second set of stairs that doubled back on either side to a high balcony, and there seemed to be one more empty crystal container lying on the floor at the top. Inside of the large, metal frame on the second level, in the heart-shaped symbol of darkness and at the heart of the machinery, the multicolored space shifted and flowed.

When Riku reached out her hand to the space, it rippled slowly, like a thick curtain, but she couldn't push through it at all. The colors changed wherever she touched her hand to its surface, though, and Riku didn't know how long she spent standing in front of it, just letting her fingers drag this way and that. It felt a little like being in the Secret Place back on the islands, but if this was anything like a door, it wasn't finished yet.

"Riku?" Maleficent called, sometime later. Riku turned around again, strangely feeling like she'd been interrupted.

"It's not done yet," Riku said. The afterimage of the swirling colors kept dancing behind her eyes.

"No," Maleficent smiled, "not yet." Riku blinked twice, and the extra colors faded from her vision. She didn't ask when things would be finished, but Maleficent seemed to think her project was on schedule, at least. "But there is still work to be done in the present. Come, follow me back to the chapel."

*~*~*~*~*~*

On the table in the chapel, the projection of Agrabah no longer showed the city, but instead gave a view of some underground chamber. There was a hole in the middle of the chamber leading to the floor below, and on one end of the chamber was the princess Jasmine, laying in front of a giant keyhole. The projection zoomed in to the center hole, and on the floor below, Sora fought against an enormous, red genie.

"That's..." So what Hades had said about Sora _was_ true.

"Jafar is a bit preoccupied, it seems," Maleficent said. Was that red genie Jafar? What had happened to make him transform like that? And why was Sora there? "Riku, you must retrieve the princess for us before the situation is further complicated.” Riku pulled her eyes from the projection to look back at Maleficent; the witch looked none too pleased at the developing situation. “Securing Jasmine is of the utmost priority; bring her directly to the Grand Hall."

"Right." Riku nodded, then made a portal to Jasmine and the keyhole.

Riku arrived back in Agrabah, completely silent. Now that she was actually in the chamber instead of just watching, it seemed larger. It was also a lot warmer, and Riku focused on the temperature while she got her bearings after going through another portal. Since Princess Jasmine still seemed to be unconscious for the moment, Riku spared a glance through the hole in the center of the chamber down to the area underneath.

There were a series of platforms, in a lake of lava, and the genie-Jafar was hurling scorching-hot boulders at those on the platforms. Sora and those with him, however, seemed to be chasing after Jafar's pet bird and the oil lamp it was holding. The bird looked like it was getting tired, and it didn't seem long until Sora caught it.

Riku turned and walked up to Jasmine and the keyhole. She wasn't dizzy or nauseous from the portal anymore, and she didn't like Jafar anyway.

There was a shimmery sort of barrier separating the place Jasmine was laying on, but it let Riku pass through with no more resistance than a thick mist, after which the barrier vanished altogether. Riku stepped carefully around Jasmine to look at the keyhole. While Maleficent's group was obviously interested in it, Riku wasn't sure what they were going to do with it. Ansem had said something before about Riku unlocking worlds, but did Maleficent have the same goals or not? Besides, the Keyblade was currently in the lava chamber below, so it wasn't like Riku had that option open to her, anyway. The only thing Riku could do with this keyhole right now was leave it alone.

"Nnnn..." Riku turned back around. It seemed like Jasmine was starting to stir. Holding out her hand behind her, Riku formed a portal back to the Grand Hall in Hollow Bastion. "...What?" Riku had been silent, but Jasmine - apparently sensing she wasn't alone - turned around and blinked up at her with wide, brown eyes.

Jasmine was dressed in a blue midriff top and pants, her long, black hair pulled back with a headband and series of ties. Her face was subtly rouged, her painted lips dropping open in shock as she stared back at Riku. More than her elegance, though, was a strange quality to the girl that made Riku stop in her tracks, and it wasn't just because Riku was finally meeting a real princess for the first time. She almost forgot why she was here, frozen and staring at this girl for reasons she couldn’t explain, until she remembered she needed to find Kairi.

Riku hastily poured more energy into the portal she'd almost let drop, then reached out to bring Jasmine towards it. She pulled Jasmine's arms behind her body, holding them there with one hand and covering her mouth with the other, before the princess could let out more than a gasp. Jasmine fought Riku all the way, eyes darting around fearfully as Riku dragged her bodily through the portal, kicking and twisting. Riku's chest was heaving just as badly because it was surprisingly complicated to drag anyone somewhere they absolutely did _not_ want to go, but Riku was much stronger. She fought down her rising panic as she pulled Jasmine through to Hollow Bastion, because she was supposed to be focused on getting the princess away from the fight in the lava chamber, or trying to stop all that squirming without getting her fingers bitten off, and it must have been going through the portal made her nauseous again, but if she hesitated now in any way, she wouldn’t be able to start again. More than anything else, though, all Riku could think about was how she couldn’t afford to wonder why Jasmine was so strange, she had to do this, or it would be the same thing as abandoning Kairi.

Maleficent was waiting for them in the lower level of the hall, next to the empty crystal container. Jasmine looked like she was about to cry at any moment, though she had also tried to bite Riku's fingers several times. The witch raised her staff in front of Riku and Jasmine, and it began to glow with a green light. Riku looked away, and kept thinking about Kairi instead. Slowly, Jasmine's movements became weaker, and she eventually stopped struggling, slumping in Riku's arms. Once the green light was gone from the corner of her eyes, Riku looked back again and saw that Jasmine was asleep.

"You can let go now," Maleficent said. Riku nodded once and stepped back. Jasmine began to float off the ground, and Maleficent directed the girl with her staff into the empty crystal container. The witch made a few more gestures, and the glass cover reformed over the container. There were six of them, now. Maleficent smiled, then turned back towards the chapel. Riku tore her eyes away from the crystal after another few moments, then turned to leave herself. She didn't want to stay in the hall much longer.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Back in the chapel, Hades was complaining.

"-resources we lost." His frown only deepened when he caught sight of Riku. "Although maybe we wouldn't be _in_ this situation if that vizier had gotten a little help, oh, say from _certain parties_ present at the time..." Riku stared back, mouth flat. She wasn't going to help people who looked down on her and then expected her to obey their every whim.

"I got the princess, didn't I?" she replied. Wasn't that more important? If Hades was upset, why hadn't _he_ done anything to help Jafar?

"Your concern has been noted," Maleficent said, with a single nod at Hades in acknowledgment, "but Jafar was clearly beyond our help. His help to our cause was appreciated, but when he rejected any help in return, there was nothing to do but allow him to lie in the bed he made." She waved a hand over the projection on the table, and the image of Agrabah slowly dissolved into green and black, adjoining circles expanding and contracting in a geometric pattern too quick to discern. "His weakness allowed the darkness to overtake him."

"Look, I get the guy was playing fast and loose with the Heartless," Hades continued, not only irritated but growing agitated as well, "but good chumps like that are hard to come by." The blue fire on his head was flickering higher, and the shadows at the edges of the chapel lengthened in response. "If you spent even a _fraction_ as much time allying with your colleagues instead of disrespectfully _ordering_ your peers around, we wouldn't have these sorts of-"

"Excuse me, Lord Hades," she interrupted, tone steely under a layer of cordiality, "but I do not give my colleagues more than they should be able to handle. We are not playing with our gloves still on." The circles on the table had aligned, frozen concentrically. "I offered assistance and advice to Jafar more than once, and he insisted on doing this alone. He only has himself to blame for the consequences." Hades was fuming.

"If you think this _ice-queen_ shtick is inspiring _confidence_ in the _team_ , not to mention the effect on young and _impressionable_ minds who would be so much more _useful_ if-" he shot a look at Riku again.

"Hey!" Riku protested. She didn't appreciate being dragged into this argument between Hades and Maleficent, not to mention being called _young and impressionable_.

"Excuse me," Maleficent repeated. She tapped her staff on the ground once, and it echoed around the chapel. "I do not believe my tutelage of other parties is any of your concern." She raised a single eyebrow so sharply it could probably cut the air in half. Riku couldn't tell if Maleficent was defending her or simply using her as ammunition in her argument with Hades. "Nor do I think responding in a rational manner is less preferable to letting one's anger burn so fiercely that it clouds one's _judgment_ of the situation." Her smile was small and tight. This last bit was obviously a dig at Hades, but she also seemed to be commenting on something unspoken, as well. Hades returned to his earlier oily, grinning smoothness.

"Hey, hey, I'm as cool as they come." Even the flames on his head had shrunk back to their usual size, though Riku couldn't tell if it was deliberate or unconscious on Hades' part. "Let's get back to business; I know we're all _dying_ to hear your big news."

"Oh, yes," Maleficent agreed, tone pleasant again as well, and waved her hand over the table again. The circles started moving again, smaller ones budding off from the larger, central one, then paused in a symmetrical grid. A familiar image radiated up from the grid, floating life-sized a few inches off the table.

"Kairi!" Were it not for the hazy, emerald transparency, Riku would swear she was right there. She was laying down, as if sleeping, and her hair had fallen on her face. Riku could only lean forward and grip the edge of the table to stop herself from reaching out and brushing Kairi’s bangs away from her face. “Where is she?”

“I’ve found your friend, just as I promised,” Maleficent replied. That wasn’t an answer. “As for her exact location, I will leave you to the direction of the captain, here." Riku turned to see Captain Hook walking up to the table. She hadn’t even noticed him come in.

"I have to warn you," Hook said, grinning as his namesake caught the torchlight with an eerie gleam, "it won't be a pleasure cruise. And I'll have no _shenanigans_ aboard my vessel." He drew the word out in a slight sneer. "You'll obey me orders just like the rest of me crew."

"I've been on boats before," Riku reassured him. Danger didn't matter if it meant she was going to meet up with Kairi. None of what had happened to Riku since the islands were destroyed mattered. "I know how to-"

Maleficent was smiling too much. Riku stopped herself and quickly glanced around the room; _everyone_ was smiling too much.

"…Wait. Why are you doing all this?" Riku asked Maleficent, suddenly feeling caution was paramount. Just a few minutes ago, the witch had been arguing with Hades about resources; arranging for a whole ship and its crew just to pick up Kairi didn't make sense. "Why go to all this trouble for me?"

“We had a deal, didn’t we, dear?” Maleficent’s voice was sickly-sweet. “You help us with our goals, and we help you with yours.” The sharpness in her eyes, contrasted with the soothing tones, only put Riku more on-edge.

“Don’t call me that,” Riku said. It didn’t feel honest, and it certainly didn’t feel friendly. “You’re doing more than you have to.” This didn’t feel like a _fair_ deal, either. What was Maleficent going to ask for in return later?

“Why, Riku, you prick me to the core,” Maleficent frowned. “You’re like a _daughter_ to me.” She reached out with spindly fingers to stroke Riku’s cheek. “I only want you to be happy.”

“I seriously doubt that,” Riku snapped, low and tense, stepping back and swatting the hand away. She didn’t want to be touched by something… _inhuman_.

“Well,” Maleficent returned her hand to her side, and there was no longer sugar in her voice, “just remember that I kept my end of the bargain.” Riku didn’t plan on relaxing until she was with Kairi in person.

“We leave at once,” Hook said, breaking the short silence. And Riku's long stay in Hollow Bastion up until that point - from the disorientation of her first real portal up until the green light from Maleficent's staff out of the corner of her vision - no longer seemed like anything more than a few blinks of the eye.

Riku turned and followed the pirate out of the chapel. They slowly made their way down the lifts of the castle, out to a rowboat that was docked in the valley between the waterfalls. Hook seemed to think nothing of it, nor did he think anything of ordering Riku to untie the boat and start rowing, but it all felt nostalgic in the strangest way.

It moved from nostalgic to downright unfair, however, when only a few strokes of the oars transported Riku and Hook from the waterfall valley to a large, red pirate ship in outer space.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Moonflowers can refer to both [cereus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightblooming_cereus) flowers, which bloom at night and then die, and [datura](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura) flowers, which are often poisonous and used by witches.
> 
> In case you hadn't noticed, this chapter took me an extremely long time to finish. About 20% of that was actual writing, and about 80% was editing. I have the rest of the drafts done until the end of the first section, so it's just a matter of tweaking things until I'm satisfied with posting them. Future edits shouldn't take as long as this one did, hopefully.


	10. Monstro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is a puppet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so so sorry that this took so long to update. The writer's block was horrendous, but my beta [mostlyharmless](http://archiveofourown.org/users/mostlyharmless) was there for support and kicking ass.

Everything was fine, until the giant whale showed up. In some ways, it made a strange sort of sense that if a pirate ship could sail in outer space, then a whale could swim there, too, but the idea was so outlandish that most of Riku's brain was in disbelief.

All the pirates were yelling, a noise that had started high in the crow's nest and traveled down the riggings like wildfire, and Hook was trying to shout his orders above the din. Luckily, no matter how many theoretical villainous acts of piracy Riku guessed Hook had committed, he was actually reasonably skilled at commanding his crew, and cannons were quickly readied. Riku had never been on a ship this large before, but she could handle the lines easily enough and helped turn the ship to put the whale on their port side so the cannons could be fired.

No matter how many cannonballs were fired, though, the whale didn't seem to be deterred. It was easily twice as large as the ship and still barreling right towards them, and even when Hook gave orders for the ship to move out of the way, the whale rammed into the ship's port side with a thunderous shockwave. Riku was knocked off her feet, as were some of Hook's crew. A handful of pirates tumbled overboard, and Riku found herself hanging onto one of the lines as she was whipped back and forth in the air.

The wind increased, and Riku saw that the whale's mouth had opened. Hook was still shouting orders from his spot at the helm, looking utterly incensed at the whale, but the pirates were now too terrified to do anything useful. Most were now either running away from the toothy maw to the hold or climbing away from their rigging posts, none of them coordinated for cannon-fire nor boarding-harpoons any longer.  Riku was still hanging onto that line as tightly as she could, but the whale's jaws moved forward, and with a deep roar, it swallowed her whole.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When the majority of the shaking stopped, Riku realized that she could still breathe inside of the whale. She was also relieved to note that she wasn't being digested yet, though she made a mental note to stay out of the bright green pools nearby that smelled like throw-up. The insides of the whale seemed to be relatively stable, though everything pulsed as various organs carried out their duties.

In addition to random piles of detritus that had accumulated due to indiscriminate eating habits, it also seemed that some Heartless had been swallowed along the way. While the Heartless didn't appear to be going after the whale's heart just yet, Riku wasn't shocked that they were perfectly fine with going after hers. She called Soul Eater to her hand, despite thinking it was strange that she was technically being eaten herself, and struck back. The Heartless here were mostly floating and trickier to hit - both the ephemeral, ghostlike ones and the small ones that shot magic - but it was only a matter of time before they were defeated.

Riku's battle must have been overheard, however, because she suddenly heard voices. Had others been swallowed like Riku?

"Pinocchio! Where have you gone this time?" That didn't sound like one of Hook's pirates. Quickly, Riku hid behind some wooden debris.

"This way, Father!" That didn't sound like a pirate, either. A few moments later, something appeared. "I'm over here." It was a wooden puppet, but it was walking and talking just like a boy. The puppet waved at something around a corner, and soon enough, an old man appeared.

"Pinocchio," the old man frowned, "were you wandering off and getting into trouble again?"

"I was just, uh," the puppet looked around shiftily, "looking for a way out!" It smiled up brightly at the old man. "Yeah, to get us out of Monstro." Was that the whale's name? Before Riku could contemplate that, she saw a light as the nose on the puppet seemed to lengthen. The old man sighed.

"Oh, your nose," he responded. "I wish you wouldn't lie to me." Riku didn't know what the cause of this magic was, only that the puppet's nose reacted to lies.

"Sorry, Father," the puppet said, looking down. It didn't make sense for the thing to be related to an old man at all. "Actually, I heard noises, and I thought that someone else might have gotten swallowed."

"But there's no one here," the old man pointed out. "It was probably more of those Heartless creatures." He was still frowning. "It's too dangerous here; let's go back." The puppet nodded, and both of them left the way they came.

Riku straightened and looked around once more. That was strange, to be sure, but Riku didn't have time to get involved in whatever those two were doing. There wasn't anything here but whale. She should make a portal back to the pirate ship so she could go get Kairi. Before she could make one, however, she felt another presence.

"Maleficent." What was _she_ doing here?

"Ah, there you are." It didn't make sense for _her_ to be here, either. "Hook told you the situation, did he?"

"...Situation?" Riku repeated, frowning. She'd intended to leave with Kairi as soon as they were reunited, but now it seemed like there was something else going on.

"With your friend Kairi, of course. That's why you're here, correct? Did Hook not tell you?" What was going on with Kairi?

"I... the ship was attacked, and I got swallowed..." That wasn't important, though. "What's going on with Kairi?" Maleficent gave Riku a pitying look.

"That poor girl seems to have lost her heart," the witch said. Riku gasped.

"She what?" That sounded impossible. "But-"

"We have recovered her, as I promised you," Maleficent continued, "but until her heart is returned to her, she will be nothing more than a lifeless puppet." That- that was _horrible_. Riku had spent so much effort trying to find Kairi to keep her safe. Was she too late? "Speaking of puppets... I traveled here to ascertain more information about that wooden puppet you just saw, and with your friend Kairi in mind."

"What does a wooden puppet have to do with Kairi?" It was strange, to be sure, but Riku wasn't sure how watching a wooden toy would help Kairi.

"If one were to discover how a wooden puppet was able to gain a heart," Maleficent smiled, "then one might be able to find how to get that friend of yours _her_ heart." Riku thought about it for a few moments.

"If I can find out more about the puppet..." Riku doubted the puppet was a princess, so Maleficent didn't seem to have any motives other than helping Riku with Kairi. Maleficent probably wanted Riku to help her with other things, too, so this was more following through on her side of the deal than any personal interest. Riku couldn't let Kairi stay without her heart, if it was really true, so it was probably okay to agree. "...Will you see if it can help Kairi get her heart back?" Maleficent looked pleased.

"Certainly, my dear. All you need to do is bring the puppet to me." Riku nodded.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It was actually pretty easy to find the puppet again. He seemed to be curious and prone to wandering, so all Riku had to do was fight Heartless loud enough for others to hear or show herself for a moment or two, and he would follow, searching for her. She was just about to get the puppet into a good place to bring him to Maleficent when there was a big ruckus from another area of the whale. All the insides of the whale shook, and the puppet ran off in the other direction.

Riku followed the puppet, making sure to keep out of sight, hiding around corners and behind wooden debris. She halted abruptly when she heard voices coming from a large chamber. Silently, Riku poked her head around the corner of the opening separating the chambers and peered in.

This chamber was much larger, lined on one side by two rows of giant teeth. It must be the whale’s mouth, but that jaw didn’t look like it was going to open anytime soon.

"It's true." That was _Sora_ talking. Why was _he_ here? The animals were still with him, too, if their voiced agreement was anything to go by. Sure enough, in the partial remains of a wrecked ship, Sora and the animals were talking with the puppet and the old man.

Had that last shakeup been caused by the whale swallowing Sora? What was going on? The outcome of her meeting with Sora in Traverse Town rose to the front of Riku's mind. Sora was probably just goofing around again. Like usual. It was a good thing at least _Riku_ was trying to help Kairi.

The puppet turned its head and met Riku’s gaze. It snuck away from where the others were talking and began to walk towards her.

“Alright,” Riku said quietly, smiling to herself, “we can play hide-and-seek some more.” It might have been nice to find out for sure what Sora was up to, but this was the best opportunity she’d gotten regarding the puppet so far. She backed up slowly, making sure to keep eye contact with the curious puppet as she did so, then turned and ran into a deeper chamber, reeling her lure in.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Riku managed to lead the puppet into a smaller chamber, but she heard voices close behind.

"Come here!" she said quietly to the puppet, waving it towards her as she backed into another corridor. "I want to show you something."

"Hm?" The puppet tilted its head inquisitively. Riku waved it to her again, nodding and smiling as it stepped forward. She had to hurry if she was going to get it close enough for capture.

"Come on!" The puppet stepped forward again. Sora's voice was starting to make itself distinct from the noises. Riku ducked into the corridor, out of sight of anyone save the puppet.

"Hello? Pinocchio?" she heard Sora call.

"Pinocchio!" another voice quacked out. Riku waved more urgently to the puppet. It looked at Riku, then darted its gaze back to the others.

"Umm..."

"Over here!" she whispered, backing up another step. The puppet kept bouncing its gaze back and forth, but it wouldn't move.

"Pinocchio," Sora called again. "This is no time to be playing games!" That part was a bit much.

"But Sora, I thought you liked games." Riku responded, moving back into the doorway and stepping in front of the puppet. Usually, the challenge was to get Sora to take things seriously.

"Riku!" Sora looked surprised to see her again, so she flashed him a grin, even though it wasn't funny. While the animals were still there, at least they weren't doing anything.

"Or are you too cool to play them, now that you have the _Keyblade?_ " She grinned wider and sharper. It was _her_ Keyblade. How could Sora go gallivanting off on his own without any concern for the feelings of anyone else?

"What are you doing with Pinocchio?" Sora was frowning, which always looked strange on his face. He had only met that puppet ten minutes ago. How could he be so concerned with it, when he hadn't even bothered to ask Riku how she or Kairi were doing?

"Just playing hide-and-seek." Riku kept her tone casual, but it felt like her grin was frozen in place.

"Quit fooling around!" Now, Sora's brows were shooting down just as sharply as Riku's teeth. "What's going on?" This really would be hilarious, in Riku's opinion, if only it weren't so frustrating.

"You can play, too," Riku added, as nonchalantly as she could. "You know, if you don't have anything more _important_ to-"  
  
A gurgling rumble traveled through the whale, then, the walls and floor shuddering in its wake. The air shifted, chilly and smelling of darkness. With a high-pitched cry, a horde of Heartless came pouring into the room from the direction of the rumbling. Looked like they wanted to play, too.

"Waaughh!" the puppet gave its own shout of terror and ran away into a different chamber.

"Come on!" Sora slid into his familiar attack stance, and the Keyblade appeared in his hands in a flash of light. One of the ghost Heartless lunged at him, and he drove it back with a slice.

"If you can catch me," Riku answered, "maybe I'll tell you what I know." It was just like all the times they used to race, back on the islands. The only difference was that Sora was only thinking about the puppet and Riku couldn't get her eyes to match her cheeks.

She summoned Soul Eater to her own hand, swatted another Heartless out of the way, and turned to chase after the puppet. Whether Sora chose to seek her out or not was his own decision.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Riku thought she’d almost caught up to the puppet again, when she heard the sound of a portal swirling into existence. Was it more Heartless? Quickly, she turned and called Soul Eater to her hand.

"Why do you still care about that boy?" Or maybe it was just Maleficent. Riku dismissed Soul Eater and resumed a more casual pose. “He has all but deserted you for the Keyblade and his new companions, after all.” This was not who Riku had been trying to find. Why was she still here? Had she been watching again, like in New Orleans and Agrabah? Couldn't Riku have a conversation to herself, for once?

"I don't care about him," Riku insisted, though it was a hair delayed and her cheeks warmed at the suggestion. "I was just messing with him a little."

"Of course you were," Maleficent agreed, tone sarcastic, a single eyebrow raised. "The Heartless prey upon darkness in the heart, Riku. You should be a little more careful."

"Mind your own business," The flush on Riku's face that had only been suggested before rose to prominence. Did Maleficent think she could suddenly turn her mothering face on and expect Riku to listen? She'd said Riku could do things her _own_ way, and that was what Riku was going to do. What did it matter why she was talking to Sora? As long as Riku got the puppet for Kairi, whatever she did along the way wasn’t any of that witch’s business.

Maleficent only frowned and left in a portal. She was a hypocrite, too, for chastising Riku about the darkness and then using a portal right after. Riku gritted her teeth and continued through the whale. She had a puppet to find.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

By the time Riku finally caught up with the puppet, it had gotten itself into trouble. A giant Heartless had caught it in its jaws, and the only reason Riku could see the puppet was the Heartless's cagelike teeth. The puppet was luckily more frazzled than damaged at the moment, so Riku was fairly confident she could pry it from behind the teeth. Once Riku got the puppet back, she could bring it to Maleficent to help Kairi.

Riku summoned Soul Eater to her hand, and was just about to start her attack, when Sora ran in with the animals. He looked at Riku for a moment and ran up next to where she was standing, but then quickly focused on the puppet.

"Pinocchio!" Sora called.

"Someone, help!" the puppet yelled back.

"Hey, Sora," Riku said, quiet enough so only he could hear it, shooting him a grin as she did so. He looked back at her, too, though Riku could sense a hint of wariness. Sora had been an idiot lately, in the most carelessly hurtful sort of way, but they'd still known each other all their lives. Even though Sora was watching the Heartless and the puppet, he was still standing next to Riku as he was doing it. Riku had been doing her best to forget about Sora entirely, but maybe there was still a chance he could be reasoned with. "You think we can beat this thing by ourselves?" Sora had to remember _that_ , at least.

"Of course," Sora shot back, and while the weapon he summoned to his hands was still Riku's Keyblade, it was a good sign. Riku hadn't even known she'd been anxious before until she realized she was relieved now. How strange. "Let's go!"

It was almost nostalgic, in a way. The animals were fighting against the Heartless too, but it was like they weren't even there. Riku had spent a lot of time, back on the islands, pretending to fight monsters with Sora; knowing that this was the real deal was exciting. She couldn't resist showing off a little, making her blows and dodges a little flashier here and there, using her height advantage over Sora to jump at the sensitive top half of the Heartless, but from the looks of things, Sora was showing off, too. Sora had improved since their time on the islands, too, and while Riku was still confident she was the better fighter, the familiar feeling of competition made her grin. Sure, they'd been arguing before, but this was sort of fun.

It wasn't long before the Heartless was forced to spit the puppet out of its mouth. The puppet fell into another chamber of the whale, and Riku rushed to follow. When she caught up with the puppet back in the whale's mouth, it was alive but unresponsive. Had it lost its heart? But Maleficent had acted like she knew what was going on with this puppet, so Riku wasn't worried. Sora was starting to act reasonably again, too; if she had the chance, Riku would try and talk some sense into him.

Riku was about to go find Sora when the old man started yelling at her. Riku quickly leapt up to one of the ledges out of his reach, but even after she told him to get lost and stop worrying about a stupid puppet, he just kept bothering her. It wasn't like he could stop Riku from leaving by force, but it'd just be pathetic if she had to use Soul Eater to get the old man to shut up. This was annoying; how was Riku supposed to talk to Sora if this guy couldn't take a hint and leave her alone?

"Please, let him go!"

"Not happening." Just then, Sora ran in, animals in tow as always. That solved _one_ of Riku's problems, at least. Now, all she had to do was convince Sora to follow her back to Maleficent. They'd argued before, but fighting that Heartless together earlier had proved that Sora could still be reminded of why they'd been friends so long in the first place.

"Riku!" She looked down at the spot Sora had rushed to. Now, all she had to do was get him to listen, and- "Let Pinocchio go!"

Or maybe Riku had been naïve to think one stupid fight against a Heartless was enough for Sora to remember what his priorities should be. He hadn't been thinking about things back on the islands at all, whether it was anything he used to do or the people he used to do them with.

"No," Riku said. "I still have business with this puppet." She should have listened to Maleficent when she had come by earlier.

"But he's not a puppet!" Why was the old man _still_ talking? "He's my little boy!"

"Not many puppets have hearts, it's true," Riku admitted, though she was more interested in the how than the why. "But if a puppet's lost its heart to the Heartless, maybe it holds the key to helping someone else who's lost _their_ heart." If there was a chance it could help, then Riku was taking it.

"Wait..." Sora said. "Are you talking about Kairi?"

"What do _you_ care about her?" Riku snapped back, face flushing in sudden indignation. He could go around with a bunch of stupid animals, going to worlds by himself with a keyblade that _wasn't his_ \- while _Riku_ had been the one putting all her efforts into helping Kairi - _pretending_ he remembered all the time he had spent with Riku over the years but conveniently _forgetting_ all about it because of one stupid puppet? And now he was _pretending_ to worry about Kairi to change Riku's mind about the puppet? How _dare_ he.

Riku couldn't stand to look at him right now, so she hefted the unconscious puppet under one arm, leapt to an even higher ledge, and exited out of the room into a different chamber before she lost her temper even more.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sora was quick to chase after her, though. It irritated Riku to no end that the animals behind him were glaring at Riku like she'd accosted them personally, or something. She ignored them in favor of directing her own gaze back at Sora because she was still standing between them and the unconscious puppet.

"Riku, what are you thinking?" This part of the whale wasn't very stable; the grumbling and gurgling made the floor shift and the walls pulse, and what patches of solid footings were present were constantly interspersed with pools of acid. Now, Sora was trying to look at her again like he remembered what Riku'd been trying to remind him of, by she couldn't tell if he was pretending again or not. Why couldn't he just make up his mind?

After a certain point, playing dumb was no longer excusable. If Sora was going around all over the place and showing off with the Keyblade, then there was absolutely _no good reason_ for him to act like _Riku_ was the one who had to explain herself. Kairi had _lost her heart_ , and Riku was the one who'd been spending every single day trying to find her and help her. _Sora_ was the one who owed _Riku_ an explanation.

"I could ask you the same thing," Riku replied. This whole situation was completely ridiculous. Sora's tendency for obliviousness was always the thing that frustrated Riku the most, but she would usually forgive him for it afterwards if it led to an argument back on the islands. This time felt different. There were more important things going on right now. "Do you even _care_ about saving Kairi?"

It was difficult for Riku to keep her temper in check, but she just couldn't let this go any longer. If Sora could be serious about things, if he could pay attention to what Riku was saying, then maybe things would start going right between them again. Even now, she would forgive him, if he would only bother apologizing.

"Of course I do," Sora replied, looking down. Right now, he looked like he actually remembered how it was supposed to be for the three of them. Even though he'd gone back to acting like an idiot about the puppet, he'd looked the same way when he and Riku were fighting that Heartless, too. If Sora had forgotten about Riku and Kairi for good, if he was just pretending again, then Riku would go right back to forgetting about Sora in return. If he was really serious, though, then Riku had to give him one last chance.

"Hey, Sora," The tone of voice wasn't one she used for anyone else, and she disliked having to do it in front of an audience, but it had to be done. He should remember that, at least, if nothing else. Sora looked back up at her, and he still looked serious. "Let's stop messing around like this." She did her best to smile, though it was a challenge, and held her hand out. "We can save Kairi together." They were supposed to be best friends. They _had_ been. This was one last chance for Sora to prove that they still could be.

Sora summoned the Keyblade into his hands and pointed it at Riku.

" _What?_ " Riku's hand dropped back to her side, and the thing inside of her that had begun smoldering in Traverse Town caught fire and started to burn. "You'd rather _fight_ me? Over a puppet that has no heart?" Sora had to have a punchline to this because _Riku_ certainly hadn't been joking.

"Heart or no heart, at least he still has a conscience." What good was something like that if the only thing it was good for was wasting time and looking down on people who were _supposed_ to be your friends? Riku's _conscience_ had not been what had enabled her to find Kairi.

Even now, Riku would forgive Sora if he changed his mind or said it was really a joke after all, and she would accept whatever apology Sora would give her.

But no. _Riku_ was the one who was wrong because _Sora_ had decided it. And in the end, even after Riku had found Kairi's heart and saved her, none of it would matter to Sora because he had _his_ conscience and was willing to attack Riku with _her_ keyblade.

"Pinocchio! Pinocchio!" This green... _thing_ suddenly leaped out of Sora's jacket and ran over to the puppet. It looked like some sort of bug, but it was a good four or five inches long. Had that thing been in Sora's jacket the whole time? That was _disgusting_.

"You might not recognize it," Sora said, "but right now it's loud and clear." It was _appalling_ , how self-righteous he was acting. "And it's telling me you're on the wrong side!" He was standing there, pointing Riku's own Keyblade at her in accusation, without a single thought of what was _actually_ happening. Now, it wasn't just that Sora was listening to whatever the animals said; Sora remembered how things were supposed to be, but he just didn't care anymore.

"I'm not gonna make it..." the puppet mumbled, off to the side. Was it awake already? It had acted before like its heart was _gone_. Just then, its nose grew again, and it gasped in surprise. "I guess I'm okay." Another dead end.

"You leave me no choice, then," Riku responded, narrowing her eyes. From here on, Riku wouldn't hold back anymore. If Sora was turning his back on her for good, then she wasn't going to waste any more of her time or sympathy on him. She wasn't going to bother convincing him to give her the Keyblade back; she would _take_ it back, and Sora would just have to deal with it. If Sora wanted to make her his enemy, then he deserved whatever horrible thing happened to him as a consequence of that.

The whale shook again, and the same Heartless from before dropped down, eager to catch something else in its giant maw, and for good this time. Riku gripped onto the cold fire building inside of her, then stuck her hand behind herself. It formed a portal which she slowly backed into, the vision of Sora glaring back at her steadily overtaken by blue-black swirls and the scent of something thick and sharp.


	11. Neverland

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which someone is not as good a mother as she imagines herself to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's right, this fic is back!
> 
> Many thanks, as always, to my wonderful beta mostlyharmless. You rock :)

Once Riku heard where Kairi was, she ran as fast as she could to the Captain's cabin. The redhead was laying down on a couch in the captain's bunk, and Riku rushed up to her. She gripped tightly onto Kairi's hand and suppressed the strangled noise trying to escape her throat when she saw Kairi's face.  
  
It was just like Kairi was asleep, laying as she was, but her eyes were half-opened and glassy. She was breathing listlessly through her slightly-parted lips, and no matter how tightly Riku squeezed her hand, Kairi didn't react.  
  
"...Kairi?" Nothing. Riku swallowed. She detached her grip on Kairi's hand and shook her shoulder lightly. "Hey, Kairi..." Still nothing. Something was really wrong with Kairi. Was her heart really not there? Where had it gone?  
  
Riku dropped her hand from Kairi's shoulder when she felt another presence approach.

"Ah, you've found her," Maleficent said, finally catching up to Riku as she walked into the cabin from the deck outside. Riku spent another few moments staring at Kairi, brow furrowed. "It's just as I said, my dear." She'd said the same thing after Riku had found Sora, too, but Riku couldn't be bothered by it too much when Kairi was taking up most of her attention.  
  
"So Kairi's really like a lifeless puppet now...?" Riku hadn't wanted to believe what Maleficent was saying, at first, but the witch just kept on being proven right.  
  
"Precisely," Maleficent answered.  
  
"And her heart?" Riku swallowed; she didn't want to hear the answer, but she had to ask anyway.  
  
"Taken by the Heartless, no doubt." Riku's shoulders fell a bit, as she continued looking down at Kairi.

"I wasn't able to get the wooden puppet," Riku said, reaching again and covering one of Kairi's hands with her own. "It really seemed like it lost its heart, but then it just went back to normal."

"I would not advise interfering with that puppet any longer," Maleficent responded.

"Why not?" Riku didn't turn around; she wanted to keep reminding herself that Kairi really was there.

"I did some investigation regarding its origins myself," Maleficent explained, "and discovered it was first meddled with by one of my kind from a... different order." So there were more fairies out there. It didn't sound like they got along with each other, though. "As there are certain rules and restrictions regarding what each of us can and cannot do, reproducing the magic used on the puppet for your friend would not be practical in regards to our larger strategy." Was Maleficent abandoning Kairi, then, to avoid some other angry fairy coming after her? "But fret not; I know of another way to recover Kairi’s heart.”  
  
"What do I have to do?" Riku brought a determined tone back into her voice, but that was only because she was still looking at Kairi instead of having to talk about this horrible situation to Maleficent face-to-face.  
  
"There are seven maidens of the purest heart. We call them the Princesses of Heart." Things were starting to consolidate in Riku's mind.  
  
"Gather them together, and a door will open to the heart of all worlds. It is called Kingdom Hearts."

The words reverberated inside Riku. No matter what Maleficent’s agenda was, Riku could feel that Kingdom Hearts was a real place. So _that_ was what the not-yet-door in Hollow Bastion was going to become.

"Within lies untold wisdom." Maleficent continued. She obviously wanted whatever was in Kingdom Hearts for herself, or she wouldn't have been collecting Princesses all this time. Riku remained attentive, though, because she needed to help Kairi. “There, you will surely find a way to recover Kairi's heart.

Riku had told herself before that she would do anything to save Kairi and that not even Maleficent’s plans were exempt from that rule. If Kingdom Hearts was powerful enough that a witch like Maleficent wanted it, then Riku was just going to have to get it first. So with this in mind, her determination unwavering, Riku nodded and accepted this task.

“There is a girl named Wendy," Maleficent said, smiling, "who is currently residing in one of the cabins of this ship. Hook is convinced that she has a special quality to her that his world has never seen before. I need to examine her to determine if she is a Princess of Heart."

"Like you've been doing with the other girls?" Riku asked.

"Precisely," Maleficent nodded. "I understand that looking after Kairi is a priority for you, and you should by all means continue to do that, but if you could also keep an eye on Wendy, we can proceed with our plan that much sooner. Hook has also informed me that a boy named Peter may try to capture her, and I will _not_ tolerate our affairs being interfered with any longer." A sharp frown crossed her face for a moment, but it quickly smoothed back into her usual cloying smile. "To help you with this, I will give you a marvelous gift.”

"What kind of gift?"

"There's no need to be so distrustful, Riku." Looking at the witch's smile, Riku could think of plenty of reasons not to trust Maleficent. "As I told you before, you're like a daughter to me."

"You're _not_ my mother," Riku retorted.

"You'd be wise to accept a gift when it is so generously offered." Maleficent was still smiling, but the orb on the top of her staff was starting to glow green. Riku had her doubts that the witch was acting solely out of generosity. "It's the power to control the Heartless."

Or maybe this was a good thing, after all. If she accepted this, no matter what happened from here on out, _Riku_ was the one with the control, and it was _Riku_ who would decide how things went. For this reason, she relented, nodding again and closing her eyes while Maleficent's green fire washed over her and told her the secrets of the shadows.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Riku felt the exact moment Sora came onboard the pirate ship. She’d been sitting with her back against Kairi’s couch, getting in touch with her new dark powers, when she caught the scent of someone from a different ocean as everyone else. The shock of familiarity raced through her body, made more intense than their last meeting due to her increased senses, and she had to steady her palms flat against the creaking wooden deck.

She sent some Heartless to surround him, holding him in place until she met with him herself.

"Sora's here," she told Kairi, picking herself up and turning to look down at the redhead. "Do you wanna come with me while I say goodbye to him?" Kairi just stared back up. "You can say something, too, if you want." Riku crouched down and lifted Kairi into her arms. She was still warm, at least. "Let's go."

Kicking open the hatch out to the deck with one foot, Riku was met with the sight of Sora laying on the ground, the Heartless surrounding them. How pathetic. Hook was off to one side, twitching his mustache like he was itching to pick a fight and finding it difficult to restrain himself. Riku set Kairi down so she was sitting with her back against the mast, then stood back up in front of her and called out.

"Sora," she said loudly. "I didn't think you'd show up."

"What?" Sora scrambled to his feet, and Riku waved the Heartless back a little, so her view of him was unobstructed. "Riku! Where are Donald and Goofy?"

"Are they really that important?" Riku retorted. Sora's priorities were apparently the same as when she'd last seen him. "More important than old friends?" Sora, who _still_ hadn't learned how to pay attention, just kept glaring at her. "Instead of worrying about them, you should be asking about _her_." Since Sora was still comfortably on the lower deck and surrounded by Heartless, Riku stepped to the side to show Kairi propped up against the mast.

"Kairi!" Oh, now he was listening. It wasn't any use pretending he was distressed, though; Riku knew better, now. She wasn't going to fall for that trick again.

"That's right," Riku said. "While _you_ were off playing around, _I_ finally found her." Sora darted his gaze around one more time, his eyes wide, before settling back on Riku.

"Why are you siding with the Heartless?" Was he too shocked to even call Riku's Keyblade into his hands? Did he have that little faith in her abilities? Maybe she should prove him wrong.

"The Heartless obey me now." Even as she said it, Riku could feel her mouth pulling into a grin. She could hear everything the Heartless whispered, a constant, murmuring undercurrent of hunger for all that surrounded them. They were full of intentions that threatened to erode at the defenses of those they sensed as weak, but they would do the bidding of anyone strong enough to command them. "I can tell them to do anything, and they'll listen." And with the Heartless following her orders, there was no need to worry about losing anymore, whether it was against Sora or anything that dwelled within the darkness.

Sora's expression crystallized into a glare. _That_ was how he really felt.

"You're stupid! Sooner or later, the Heartless will devour your heart!" He was being pretty demanding for someone who was surrounded.

"Not a chance," Riku replied. "My heart's too strong."

Sora didn't understand the darkness at all. He couldn't hear the silent hunger the Heartless chanted into Riku's ears, couldn't breathe the scent filling her lungs, couldn't feel the ichor thrumming through her veins. Looking back at Sora only intensified the feeling; whatever darkness Sora had was probably pushed down and out of sight, but Riku felt her own darkness swirling and swelling within her. She felt more alive than ever before, the darkness yearning to grow and be given a form, so Riku held it, feeling it shape itself inside her body, straining to be released.

"I've picked up a few other tricks, as well." Sora was too narrow-minded to understand the darkness, so Riku would show him what she could create with it. She reached out her hand, pulled Sora's shadow free from under his feet, poured the darkness she'd grown into it, and gave it life. It rose up off the deck, three-dimensional and the perfect mirror-image of the shocked boy in front of it. It had Sora's form, save the gold eyes glowing dully from a pitch-black body, but Riku's darkness and a predatory intelligence not unlike the Neoshadow Riku had fought before. It was the opposite of Sora, really: an Anti-Sora. There was only one thing she told it to do, which was the only thing it would ever wish to do.

Kill Sora. Hide-and-seek and other kids’ games were over.

Sora looked back up at her, wide-eyed, like he'd just realized what Riku had told the Anti-Sora to do, and then the trapdoor below his feet sent him down to the brig.

With Sora gone, Riku had no more reason to stay abovedecks.

"Hoist anchor as soon as possible," she said, then bent to pick up Kairi. "We need to get underway. And keep Sora away from Kairi.” Riku started carrying Kairi to one of the cabins so she could check on Wendy, too. They needed to find all seven Princesses to open the door to Kingdom Hearts, and Hook was convinced this was the last one. If all went as planned, Maleficent would come back to confirm the girl's status, they'd take her back to Hollow Bastion, Sora would be dead, and Riku would have her Keyblade back just in time to open the door first and find Kairi's heart.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Riku was still on her way to see Wendy when a black pool slid under one of the cabin doors to block her path. At first, she thought it was one of the regular Shadow Heartless, but it soon rose up off the floor and formed the Anti-Sora. The creature stared at her silently, shuffling and twitching but never taking its golden eyes off her for a second.

"What is it?" Riku asked, her voice coming out sharper than she'd intended. She hadn't expected to see it again so soon. "Are you done already?" She shifted Kairi's weight in her arms. Had it really taken such a short amount of time for Sora to give up? Riku knew that her new skills were powerful, but she'd expected Sora to put up a least a cursory fight.

It was more frustrating than she thought it'd be. She felt a bit angry about it, she decided. She’d put in all that effort to prove to Sora how strong her new powers were, and he hadn't even shown up to make an effort in the slightest. Was Sora really _that bad_ at paying attention?

...It was disappointing, she decided.

 _Hungry,_ the Anti-Sora whispered in the language of the dark, twitching again. _Hurts. Need more._ Riku studied it again. On a second examination, the twitching was clearly out of discomfort, rather than the Heartless-like behavior she'd thought it was.

"...So he beat you," Riku concluded, sighing out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. Now, she was just annoyed.

 _Hungry,_ it whispered again, still staring at her.

"Just a minute." Riku put Kairi down, concentrated, then fed more darkness into the Anti-Sora until its twitching subsided. It kept staring at her. "Now go and try again." The Anti-Sora sunk back into a black puddle and went off in the other direction.

Riku bent down to gather Kairi in her arms once more and was surprised to find herself dizzy when she stood back up. She had to steady herself against the bulkhead, Kairi slumping into the corner where Riku's shoulder met paneled wood, head lolling onto Riku's chest. This was what ethers were for, though. Riku let Kairi's legs dangle to the floor, her other arm wrapped around Kairi's middle to hold her up, and used her free hand to fish in her pocket. She grabbed an ether, downed it quickly, and by the time she'd got Kairi properly in her arms again, the dizziness had mostly subsided.

"You doing alright still, Kairi?" She was met with silence. "Okay, that's both of us. Let's go."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 _The last time Riku participated in an actual sleepover on the islands, it consisted of her and Kairi, up in Kairi's room, having promised Kairi's parents that they wouldn't be too loud. Kairi's father had worn that look of absentminded agreement he often wore when Kairi asked him something, and her mother had politely nodded at Riku without blinking once. Riku had nodded back at Kairi's mother, holding her backpack over one shoulder and trying not to fidget nervously, until Kairi had cheerfully shoved Riku upstairs to her room the way she usually did whenever this happened. Riku then put her backpack down and started loading Kairi's record player, while Kairi hopped back downstairs to retrieve some snacks. Once they were both settled, with one of Kairi's records on in the background, Kairi had eagerly launched into her plans for that year's midsummer festival play._

_"I was talking with Quistis and Zidane the other day, during gymnastics club," Kairi had said, spreading out a series of drawings, "and I think we came up with some really good designs this year."_

_"These are good," Riku had replied. "The turtle one, especially."_

_"You think so?" Kairi asked. Riku caught her smiling a little too slyly._

_"I'll carve the masks for you, and I'll mix the paint," Riku said slowly, "but I'm not subbing in for Selphie if her ankle's still sprained."_

_"I wasn't going to ask you to do Selphie's part," Kairi responded, looking like she was trying to pout but smiling too much to do it properly. "But if I got Zidane to take her part, and you took his..."_

_"I'm not dancing in front of that many people," Riku declared, wrinkling her nose._

_"Okay, okay," Kairi laughed. "We'll figure something else out. What do you think of my raincloud outfit?"_

_"It's pretty, but I think the sleeves are too big." Kairi looked like she was going to pout again. "I get that they're supposed to be big," Riku added, "but if you angled them more towards the back, then you'd get the same effect, but with more of the purple showing, like in your mask."_

_"What do you mean?" Kairi asked, tapping a finger to her mouth._

_"It'd be like..." Riku paused and looked around Kairi's room, then got up and took one of Kairi's gauzy scarves from its hook on the wall by her dresser. "Okay, stand up." Kairi did so, and Riku draped the scarf in a long loop around her arm. "If the longest point is at your elbow, then you can see your wrists better, but when you spin..." Riku slowly guided Kairi in a circle, one hand holding the scarf in place and the other at Kairi's back; she realized as it was happening that Kairi was moving in time with the record playing in the background, and the end of the scarf was billowing at her hips, "...you can see more of the purple on the inside of the sleeve," she finished slowly._

_"You think so?" Kairi asked quietly, looking back up at Riku._

_"Y-Yeah," Riku replied, dropping her hands and sitting down to look at the drawing again. "I could add stuff onto the back of your mask, too, to make it look like hair or something, and that could be blue or purple, too." Kairi sat down and peeked over Riku's shoulder. Riku hoped she wasn't blushing too badly._

_"That would be really nice," Kairi said. "You could have the sides puff out, and then come down the back in layers." She started playing with Riku's hair, gathering it loosely with her fingers. "I could have long hair like you, for a change."_

_"You'd look nice with long hair..." Riku wondered if her ears had turned red, too. "I mean, it looks nice short, too."_

_"I'm glad you think so," Kairi said, leaning forward a little. Riku could hear from her voice that Kairi was smiling. "You could be the one with short hair, then."_

_"I like my hair the way it is," Riku said, but didn't fidget away. She didn't like doing really girly stuff with her hair – and even for formal holidays, only put it up under duress from her parents – but she didn't have a problem with the actual length. She didn't mind Kairi playing with it, either. "But if I ever decide I wanna cut it, I'll hand you the scissors myself."_

_"It's a deal," Kairi replied._

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The girl Hook had taken prisoner didn't seem very impressive. She was dressed in what looked like a blue nightgown, her honey-blonde hair pulled back in a simple bow. She was pretty enough, but there wasn't really anything that stood out about her, and the fact that she was crossing her arms like Riku was a disobedient child was annoying. Was she really a princess? What kind of princess went around all over the place in her nightgown?

"I should like to know what's going on here," the girl said. She was frowning at Riku, quite cross, though she was smart enough to do it from the far end of the cabin.

"You're our prisoner," Riku answered, closing the cabin door with her shoulder. "We're kidnapping you and taking you to our castle." There wasn't much point in making up a story, and Riku wasn't feeling very polite right now, anyway.

"I didn't know pirates had castles." The girl uncrossed her arms, though she still appeared displeased. "I didn't think there were female pirates, either; all the other pirates kept asking me to be their mother, so you're quite the surprise."

"I'm not a pirate." Riku looked around for a good place to put Kairi. She should probably be somewhere she could sit up. The girl in the nightgown started edging slowly along the wall, towards the door. "Hey," Riku said sternly, "stop that. I won't let you escape."

"I have a name, you know. It's Wendy." She went back to the far corner, as instructed, smoothing out invisible wrinkles in the skirt of her nightgown. "I don't need to escape. Peter's going to rescue me."

"I really don't care," Riku replied, finally setting Kairi down, propping her so that she was sitting up.

"Who's that girl?" Wendy asked, now looking at Kairi with a concerned expression, though she didn't move closer. "Is she your prisoner, too?"

"Don't bother her," Riku ordered. "She's my friend. I'll come back for both of you later." She looked back at Kairi, straightened her a bit so that she wasn't leaning over, then walked back to the cabin door.

"You're a very strange girl," Wendy said. "If you're not a pirate, then why are you kidnapping me? That's not very ladylike of you."

"It's none of your business," Riku retorted, mouth a thin line. The scolding was _really_ annoying. "And I don't _want_ to be a lady." Wendy gave her a look that was both scandalized and pitying at the same time.

"But you will," Wendy insisted. "That's one of the things I learned here. It's nice to play make-believe, but everyone has to grow up eventually." Wendy was definitely the sort that wanted to be a lady. Princess or not, that kind of suffocating attitude was the worst. "It's never too late to change for the better."

"I'm not the one hiding in a corner, waiting for some _boy_ to rescue me," Riku snapped, coldly furious. Wendy flinched. "I'm not the one who's convinced herself that if enough people say being a _lady_ is admirable, then it's the only thing you're allowed to be. _I'm_ not the one who thinks that any girl who doesn't want to be a lady is just _playing pretend_ or has something wrong with her. _I_ do things on my _own_ terms."

"...You're not very nice at all," Wendy said quietly.

"I really don't care," Riku repeated, exiting the cabin and slamming it shut behind her. She turned the deadbolt to the cabin door just as forcefully, then stalked back in the direction of the captain's cabin. She met Maleficent on the way.

"I don't think that girl Hook found is a real Princess," Riku said, trying to restrain her scowl.

"Oh?" Maleficent raised an eyebrow. "And why's that?"

"She likes lecturing people too much."

"I need to check on her, all the same," Maleficent responded, frowning but thankfully not commenting further. "Should I take it that your other tasks here are done, or is there something else that still needs attending to?" She was probably talking about Sora.

"I've got the situation under control," Riku said. "It won't be long before everything's taken care of."

"I am leaving the details to you, but you'd best not get distracted, Riku.” It seemed like the witch could get just as impatient as everyone else. "We are nearly at the end; let us see it through."

"Right," Riku said. "I'll check up on things." She’d let Maleficent think what she wanted. Once they found that last Princess, this agreement was over. Maleficent might be a witch, but after everything she'd learned, Riku was sure there wasn't anyone who could stop her once the door to Kingdom Hearts was open.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

_Hungry._

"...What, already?" The Anti-Sora was staring at her, twitching sharply. Riku tried walking past it to where Kairi was, but it quickly caught up, following close beside her.

_More. Hurts._

"But it's only been an hour, at the most." It stared up at her, seemingly forlorn. "Did you at least put up more of a fight this time?"

_Hungry._

"Asking you questions is pretty pointless, isn't it?” Riku huffed, finally stopping. “You're dumb in the exact same way Sora is."

_**Hungry.** _

"Well, whose fault is that? If you'd just try a little har–"

 _Hungry,_ the Anti-Sora said, grabbing her wrist. Its hand was ice cold.

"Don't," Riku snapped, shoving it away sharply, "touch me. _Ever_."

_Hurts._

" _Listen_ to me," Riku said, feeling the cold fury rise up in her again. The Anti-Sora stayed where it was. "You might look like Sora and be dumb in the same way Sora is, but _I_ made you, so _you_ listen to _me_." She made sure to use the same tone with it as the one she'd used when she first took control of the Heartless on the ship.

 _Listen_ , the Anti-Sora agreed, starting to sound properly rebuked. _Hungry_ , it whispered again, twitching in place.

"You're going to do exactly what I tell you to do," Riku said, flexing and curling her fingers to get warmth back into them but keeping her voice steady. "Not what anyone else says. None of your idiotic ideas. Just me."

_Listen._

"You're going to go try again, and you're not going to come back until I either call you myself or Sora is dead. If you disobey me again, I'm going to destroy you."

_Listen._

"Good." Riku gathered more darkness and fed it into the Anti-Sora, her own cold fire replacing the twitching and jagged edges that had collected in her absence. The Anti-Sora regarded her, silent. "Go." It did. Only after it had left did Riku let herself lean back against the bulkhead while she downed another ether. She was running low, too; she'd have to restock once she got back to Hollow Bastion.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Maleficent was waiting for Riku when she got back to the captain's cabin. Kairi had also been moved back there to the couch, which made Riku frown. She didn't like the idea of Kairi being moved by someone else, especially without telling her. Once she was sure Kairi was alright, she relaxed a bit and turned back to Maleficent.

"Did you take a look at the girl?" Riku asked.

"Yes," the witch replied. "Unfortunately, your hunch was correct. Wendy is not one of the seven we need." She rubbed the orb on the top of her staff thoughtfully, then continued, entirely calm. "But this is only a minor setback. Finish up here, then meet me back in Hollow Bastion."

"I'll take care of things," Riku replied, just as calm. Maleficent smiled, then held her staff out, made a portal, and walked through. Riku turned her attention back to the couch.

"Soon, Kairi." She smoothed Kairi's hair. Less than a minute later, Hook strode in; Riku glanced at him once, then turned her attention back to Kairi. "You just missed Maleficent," she told him.

"And?" Hook tapped his foot impatiently. Ever since that crocodile had started following the ship, he'd been especially high-strung. "What did she say?

"Your supposed Princess was a dud," Riku said.

"What?" the pirate screeched. "Wendy's not one of the chosen ones?" Riku half expected him to start stomping around like a toddler, he was so upset.

"There are seven, and Maleficent says she's not one of them." That meant most of this endeavor had been a waste of time. How irritating. "We need to get back to Hollow Bastion. Hoist anchor as soon as possible, and leave all the dead weight behind, including her."

"After the trouble of capturing her?" Riku resisted the urge to roll her eyes; Hook had been positively gleeful about kidnapping Wendy, and it was because of other things going on in Neverland, not Maleficent. "And why those seven? What is Maleficent planning, anyway?

"As long as it means getting Kairi's heart back, I couldn't care less," Riku answered, keeping her gaze on the redhead and drumming her fingers on her crossed arms. She didn't even care that Maleficent had told her about Kingdom Hearts and left Hook ignorant. The man was so small-minded, anyway; all he cared about was one-upping that Peter kid. Maybe there were other piratey things he was interested in, but they were nothing compared to the scale of Maleficent's ambitions.

"You're wasting your time," Hook continued. Riku gritted her teeth and tried to control her temper. "The Heartless have devoured that girl's heart. I'd stake me other hand it's gone forever."

"I _will_ get Kairi's heart back," Riku said, cutting off any further lectures. If there was one thing she was sick of on this ship, it was people lecturing her.

"...Captain?" The voice of one of the pirates traveled hesitantly through the messaging pipes into the cabin.

"What is it?" Hook demanded, striding over to the message pipe.

"The prisoners have escaped. What's more, Peter Pan is with them." Hook stomped his foot angrily, but Riku couldn't help feeling a little glad. Dealing with Peter would take Hook's attention off both Riku and Wendy. This was also a good opportunity for Riku to finish things with Sora.

"Blast that Peter Pan!" Hook complained. "Bring the hostage to me cabin. I'll meet those codfish on deck." Then, he turned to Riku. "If the prisoners take the bait and come here, bring them to me." With that, Hook strode out of the cabin.

Riku watched him go, then turned back to Kairi. She knew how strong the pirates were, and she knew how strong Sora was; Wendy would never get to Hook's cabin before she was intercepted. She'd also noticed that Hook had started making up excuses for why Wendy was still important, but it didn't really matter. Once Sora got here, Riku knew exactly what she would do.  
  
Riku didn't much like waiting for Sora to get his act together, but when he finally arrived, she was ready for him. Holding Kairi in her arms again, she glared at Sora and the animals who always seemed to be with him lately.  
  
"Riku!" Sora ran forward towards her.  
  
_Now_ , Riku thought. Before Sora could get close enough to come to blows, a black puddle sped from under the cabin door to right in front of Riku. The Anti-Sora reformed, facing the boy it resembled, and Sora stopped in his tracks. He looked from the Anti-Sora to Riku, now returning Riku's glare. It was the same glare he'd given Riku when she'd talked with him earlier abovedecks. That was enough for Riku to reach into the darkness inside herself, channeling most of it into the Anti-Sora and using the last of it to make a portal.  
  
The Anti-Sora was silently begging her for permission to attack. Riku didn't expect to see Sora again after this, and she realized that she was glad. There were probably a lot of things she could say to Sora right now, but she remained silent. He didn’t deserve to hear any of it. With that thought in mind, she left through the portal as the Anti-Sora sprang forward, claws-first.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Riku emerged from the dark portal at the clock tower in London. She propped Kairi up against the wall in the little walkway and spent a few moments collecting herself.  
  
It had been easy enough when Sora had been right there in front of her; now that it was just her and Kairi on the tower, though, she felt tired and a little nauseous. But she just needed a minute or two to catch her breath, and then she'd be fine. The nighttime air in London was cool on her face, and she'd have some solitude from Hook and the others up here. It would be a good idea to report back to Maleficent before Hook did, but the pirate was stubborn and probably still wasting time dealing with Wendy.  
  
Where was Kairi's heart? Hook thought it was gone, but if that was the case, then wouldn't Kairi have turned into a Heartless by now? No, it was out there somewhere, and Riku would find it. Maleficent had finally told her about Kingdom Hearts, and why the Princesses of Heart were so important. Once they found all the Princesses, Riku could get Kairi's heart back, and then she and Kairi could do whatever they wanted, and she would be Kairi's prince because she'd definitely be stronger than stupid Sora and his stupid, stolen Keyblade, and then she could do _anything_ , and she'd–  
  
The moon looked so small, even up on the tower, like it could fit in the palm of her hand, but when Riku reached out for it, her hand stayed empty. She sighed, then turned back around and knelt in front of Kairi.

Would she really find Kairi's heart inside Kingdom Hearts, beyond the unfinished door? She still hadn't found all the Princesses to complete that door. Riku had experienced so many things lately that she'd only heard about before in fairytales, and Maleficent's plan was like another tale come to life.

Kairi had gotten her hair in her face again. Riku tilted her chin up with one hand. What if Maleficent's plan didn't work?

No, it would definitely work. It _had_ to work... But what if it didn't? What would Riku do then?

Kairi stared blankly back at Riku.

In the cold London night, Riku could only hear the clock tower and the sound of her own breath. The moon could not be caught in the palm of one's hand, and Riku would never get her Keyblade by waiting around for Sora to change his mind. Wishing on a shooting star was useless because falling stars were just a world’s eggshells. Sitting around would never change anything.

Kairi didn't make a sound; only when Riku brought their faces close could she feel Kairi's breathing in return.

How did you know which fairytales were true and which ones weren't? A lot of stories about princes and princesses ended similarly, and it was all supposed to be very romantic. Did Kairi think those kinds of stories were romantic?

Her face was so soft, her hair so bright it caught the lights of the city, her eyes so deep a blue they were almost purple, her lips parted just barely enough for soundless inhales and exhales. If Riku was able to save Kairi like a prince in a fairytale, then Sora would have no choice but to give Riku her Keyblade back. If Riku was able to save Kairi like this, and if Kairi woke up, then it really would be like a fairytale.

...She couldn't do it.

Riku screwed her eyes shut and touched her forehead gently to Kairi's. Kairi didn't move. What was the point of trying to save Kairi like this if Kairi couldn't tell Riku what kind of fairytale she liked? There wasn't anything Riku could really do but find the way into Kingdom Hearts.

"We'll be fine on our own, right, Kairi?" Riku asked softly. Kairi didn't say anything, just kept staring ahead. At least she was still breathing normally, silent though it was. Riku sighed again and moved back. For some reason, even though she was silent, Kairi seemed somber. How aware of her surroundings was she, in this state? Was she worried about what had happened on the pirate ship?  
  
"Don't be sad about Sora, okay?" Riku frowned back. "Just forget about him. Sora betrayed us, so he's getting exactly what he deserves. I'll take care of you from now on, so you don't need to worry. Okay, Kairi?" She gathered Kairi back in her arms and stood up again; it was time to be going back to Hollow Bastion.

 


	12. Hollow Bastion, part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which many things are lost and won. The truth and the prince are revealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's some more Riku-Utena fic! This chapter took so long because it's both over 13K words and because I paused my editing of it in April to finish a 14K chapter in a different fic.
> 
> Endless thanks to my beta, [mostlyharmless](http://archiveofourown.org/users/mostlyharmless). You are an absolute champ, and I am so, so grateful for your listening and editing and advice.
> 
> Minor trigger warning for the second half of this chapter.

It was all Riku could do to stay upright once she arrived in the castle. The portal she'd made had opened up in the Grand Hall, mostly because being near the keyhole cleared her head, but it didn't alleviate the pressure in her that had been slowly building since the last time she'd left Hollow Bastion. Reflexively, she laid Kairi down next to one of the machines near the keyhole, feather-gently and with shaking hands. Riku's muscles burned and groaned in protest when she stood back up, and she stumbled down the stairs, tripping on the thick carpet in front of the Princesses, stomach heaving and lungs gasping, momentum pushing her out of the hall, only to collapse when she entered the chapel. Her knees scraped on the stones and she pushed herself up with her hands, gasping in large gulps of air and trying not to throw up.

"It was reckless to bring her here without at least using a vessel," Maleficent commented coolly. When had _she_ shown up? Was she suggesting Riku use one of Hook's completely unfair rowboats? That was the _last thing_ Riku would use by choice; it hurt to breathe right now, but there was such a thing as dignity. Not that Riku had much dignity right now, still on her hands and knees, but she refused to on principle. "Remember, relying on the dark powers too heavily could cost you your heart." But Riku had decided a long time ago that losing her heart was something that was never going to happen, so she gritted her teeth and stood back up. She took a few more deep breaths but didn't break eye contact with Maleficent. The witch must have been satisfied with that response because she stopped frowning. "We still have work to do."

"Like what?" Just then, there was a distant roar, like that of a wild animal. Maleficent's neutral expression improved further, into a smile.

"A castaway," she explained. How long had that thing been here? Riku's head had been spinning so madly before that she honestly didn't know. Maleficent didn't seem concerned, though. "Though his world perished, his heart did not. When we took the princess from his castle, he apparently followed her here through sheer force of will. But fear not." Riku was definitely _not_ afraid. "No harm will come to you. He is no match for your power."

"My power?" Riku asked.

"It's time you realized your full potential, child. There is yet-untapped power within you, and it is clear we must awaken it now." Was that why Riku had been straining with the darkness earlier? If that was true, then Riku needed access to _all_ her power, not just some of it. She nodded, and Maleficent raised her staff.

Another wave of green flame surrounded Riku, wrapping and clinging, drawing out something from inside of her. It was similar to what Riku had been using to control the darkness, but more ethereal, more pure. Maleficent lowered her staff, but the shimmering cloud remained.

"It's... an aura," Riku realized. It kept changing colors, from green to blue-black to maroon-red, reminiscent of the keyhole back in the Grand Hall, but it was entirely Riku. The aura faded after a few moments more, but now that Maleficent had shown her how to bring it to the surface, Riku knew she could call it back whenever she needed it.

"Now, you are prepared," Maleficent said. "This intruder will not be the last. When that boy and the King's fools arrive, they will not be a match for you, either."

"Sora's still alive?" Just like when she was on the ship with the Anti-Sora, the news gripped at her like an undertow she couldn't shake. No matter how much distance she kept putting between herself and Sora, he wasn't deterred from chasing after her.

Riku should've known that it wasn't ever Sora's inclination to give up, though, even faced off against his own shadow. The Anti-Sora had been entirely useless, in the end, compared with Sora's insistence on bothering Riku and trying to distract her away from Kairi. It would be so much easier for Riku to get rid of him if he would just _stop reminding her_ of all the things she used to admire about him. She wanted to throw herself completely into saving Kairi, but these reminders of Sora kept clinging to her, holding her back every time she thought she was making progress.

She was never going to accomplish anything while Sora was still around. If the Anti-Sora couldn't do it, then Riku was going to have to do it herself.

"When will he get here?" Riku asked.

"You'll have enough time to prepare," Maleficent answered, starting to walk back to the Grand Hall herself. "Oh, and Riku?" She paused momentarily.

"What is it?"

"I suggest getting your Keyblade back from him before anything else. He's quite useless without it."

Riku held back her gasp, though her eyes couldn't help widening.

"You knew about that?" Riku asked. Maleficent rubbed the orb on her staff, smiling wider.

"You were already halfway there when we went to Traverse Town," Maleficent said. "All you need to do is call it." Then, still smiling, "Did Ansem not tell you? I thought he surely would have, by now."

"I..." Strangely, Riku felt her face heating up. "It's none of your business what I talk about with Ansem." Why was Maleficent looking at her like that? "Besides, I thought you said he was a bad influence."

"We have since… resolved our differences on that subject," the witch replied, spindly hand still on the orb of her staff, though she gave no indication that she would elaborate. "As long as you continue to bring me results, I won't pry into your other activities. Just remember, I've also taught you a great deal. Now go. We both have things to take care of."

Riku nodded. She wasn't completely sure what to make of Maleficent's admission, but at least the witch wouldn't hide things like that from her anymore. She knew how to get her Keyblade back, too.

There was one more order of business before dealing with the intruders, though. Riku walked back to the Grand Hall.

"Riku, I told you to go downstairs," Maleficent called behind her.

"I need to make sure Kairi's okay," Riku said. "I'll be quick." She walked past the Princesses sleeping in crystal, and up the stairs to the keyhole. If Maleficent wanted to follow her, Riku didn't care. Kneeling, she sat Kairi up with one arm at her back, checking over her to make sure she’d gotten through the portal uninjured. It was a relief to know that Riku's portal mishap hadn't affected her.

Riku hooked her other arm under Kairi's knees and lifted her up, resting Kairi's head gently against her shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Maleficent asked, frowning.

"I'm taking her to my room," Riku replied. "So she's safe."

"Leave Kairi here," Maleficent said, adjusting some of the equipment at the keyhole. "I have things to prepare still, and am perfectly capable of watching over her while you deal with our intruders. She will be much safer here than alone in your room." How was leaving Kairi with Maleficent better than hiding Kairi alone in her room? "It would be unwise to leave your friend unprotected and risk that boy finding her, would it not?" Maleficent added.

Riku's stomach threatened to turn at the thought of Sora snatching up Kairi when Riku wasn't there to defend her.

"...Okay."

"She will be exactly as you left her, I assure you." With a motion of her staff, Maleficent lifted Kairi out of Riku's arms and set her back down on the floor in front of the machines.

"I'll be back soon," Riku told Kairi quietly, touching a hand to her hair one last time. Then, she started walking back in the direction of the intruders. Sora was going to be _sorry_ he’d come here.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Riku started making her way down to where she thought the intruder might be, but she made sure to stop and check a few particular places along the way. Nothing was there, however, except for silence, Heartless, and the same mechanical contraptions as always. It was only when she was standing in front of a lift, arms crossed and debating whether to take another detour or just go deal with the roaring creature she'd heard, that she felt another presence approach.

"Ansem," she said, letting her arms fall back to her sides. He was standing in the direction she'd just come from.

"Hello, Riku." From the tone in his voice, it seemed like he was in a good mood. "Looking for something again?"

Like when he'd stopped her from going in the Great Hall, Riku felt like she'd been caught red-handed. She could smell him very strongly, since they were indoors, and the thick sharpness of it still threatened to make her lightheaded if she focused on it.

"I was just, um..." she felt her face start to heat up again, "it's nothing." Looking away, she started to turn back towards the lift that would bring her closer to the intruder. "I have to go deal with something else first, anyway."

"If you mean the creature that's been bellowing outside the castle gates for the last few hours," Ansem responded, "then I assure you, that situation is not dire." Riku turned to face him again. "He cannot operate the gondolas and therefore cannot enter the castle on his own. You appear to have something else on your mind, Riku. Why not let me see if I can assist you with it?" No matter what it was, Riku thought, he always had an explanation for everything.

"Maleficent said," Riku started cautiously, "that I can get my Keyblade back soon." She didn't mention the parts about her fights with Sora, nor did she mention Maleficent's earlier comment about Ansem.

"If she said that," Ansem replied, sounding very pleased, "then it means that you have improved a great deal. The Keyblade can only be wielded by someone with a strong heart." Riku swallowed, despite herself; she still wasn't used to the way he spoke, sometimes.

"I've learned some new things," she said, though she still felt a bit unsure.

"Show me." Riku deliberated for a moment, then decided that since she’d only talked about what she’d learned of the keyblade from Maleficent so far, not… anyone else, that it would be okay. Putting her hesitancy out of her mind for the moment, she concentrated, then let the aura Maleficent had shown her appear around her body. Again, the colors around her kept changing. "That's an advanced technique, Riku; do you know what it does?"

"It's an aura, right?" Riku answered, letting it sink back into her skin. "It improves my senses and my fighting skills."

Ansem chuckled.

"That's true," he said, "but you can certainly develop it further than that, don't you agree?"

"What else could it do?" Riku asked. She thought that having her dark powers twice as fast and strong as normal was pretty impressive on its own.

"Hmm... This may require a practical demonstration," Ansem said, moving a little closer. "If you call the aura again, I could show you other ways it can be utilized." His scent was very strong, now, and for some reason Riku couldn't fathom, the heat in her cheeks started to come back, matching in potency. "You'll let me help you, won't you, Riku?"

"I don't know," Riku responded, looking away again. "I should probably go get rid of that intruder. I've been delayed long enough..."

"You wouldn't have been looking for me if you didn't want to talk to me." Riku snapped her gaze back to Ansem.

"How did you know I—I mean, shouldn't I figure out how to use it myself?" If she was going to get stronger, then wasn't it best to gain that strength on her own merits?

"I want to see you succeed," Ansem continued, starting to sound more insistent; his scent became sharper, as well. "It's only right for you to be able to use your skills to their full potential." That was... similar to what Maleficent had said, wasn't it? "You are capable of achieving so much, Riku. If you would only let me assist you..." Riku bit her lip.

"I don't know..." she repeated. "I should go..." She started to turn away again, and was almost about to take a step towards the lift when she heard Ansem sigh.

"It was not my intention to upset you," he said. "I only want to see you become stronger." Riku paused and turned back around, still cautious. "You have matured so much since I first met you, that to stop when you are so close..." Ansem started to turn away, himself. He sounded so disappointed.

"Wait," Riku said. Her stomach felt like it was turning unpleasantly. "It's not like that at all." Ansem turned back to look at her. "I've been working really hard at getting stronger. There's a lot of stuff I've done since I was in Hollow Bastion last." She'd finally found Kairi, she'd... had to deal with Sora's betrayal, and she'd finally figured out how to get the Heartless to obey her. "I just... I thought that if I wanted to finish what I'm trying to do, that it was something I had to do myself."

Ansem was silent for a little longer. With no expression to look at, Riku had no idea what he was thinking. She did her best to keep still until he spoke again.

"It appears we've had a misunderstanding," he said eventually. "I can tell from what you've said just now that you've been sincere in your efforts, but please understand that you have not been acting in isolation." He spoke deliberately, in a manner similar to those reports of his. "You've let Maleficent help you in the past, and I'd like to think that our talks have also been beneficial."

"...Yeah," Riku said, though her voice came out quieter than usual.

"Won't you let me help you with this as well?" The next part was said even more deliberately, and his deep voice added a weight to it that made Riku unconsciously hold her breath. "I've been waiting a long time to find you, Riku. Don't tell me you haven't guessed that much already."

There was... something about the way he said it that made Riku swallow again. She felt tense, but not because Ansem was moving towards her again, his scent cutting sharply through her surroundings. The idea was still strange, but it sounded like Ansem really was serious. The rest of what he'd said, too, made something catch in her throat.

There were still things she couldn't ask him for help about, and maybe she never would, but if Ansem had been waiting for Riku because… If it was him who’d… she wouldn't worry anymore.

"Alright," Riku said. There was still a part of her power that she couldn't help holding back, because getting a little help was different from being told how to do things completely, but she concentrated and called her aura to surround herself once more.

"Very good, Riku."

It felt really weird. There were a few moments, at first, where it was very cold, but they passed quickly enough. It was difficult for Riku to remember where she'd felt a chill like that before, while her head was spinning from the way Ansem's scent brushed lightly against the aura, but the changing colors surrounding her thickened and continued flowing. The aura slowly changed and condensed from a semi-transparent cloud to many thin ribbons, wrapping around her more tightly and conforming to her shape. In another moment, it went completely black, and she tensed reflexively, but after that, it was clear again. Ansem, who had raised a hand to point at Riku, slowly lowered it back to his side. Riku took a deep breath, and then examined the new form her aura had taken.

Riku's new outfit mostly consisted of a black bodysuit, covering everything from the neck down but clinging to the contours of her body like a second skin. Dark blue lines traced over her muscles, adding extra layers of thickness to match. Her boots had changed from smooth black to a deep maroon, with matching gauntlets covering her hands and forearms, both also ridged with the same pattern imitating musculature. On her chest was the emblem of the three-pronged heart, not crossed with thorns like the emblem on the outside of the castle or the Heartless, but a pure black outlined in red, like the keyhole in the Grand Hall. And around her waist…

"...It's got a skirt," Riku said, frowning down at it. In thick strips of varying lengths, hanging from a strap all around save the very front, where the straps crossed like an X to secure the open edges, two layers of dove-gray over steel-gray fabric formed a ragged hem just above her knees. She tugged at it once, feeling very skeptical, but looked back up when she heard Ansem chuckle.

"It's armor that will protect you and put you more closely in touch with your powers," Ansem said. "And you look lovely." It sounded like he was smiling. Riku felt her face heat up again; he was so _strange_ , sometimes, and she really wasn't used to being treated like this.

"I don't really wear skirts," she explained, but her voice was high and soft.

"Why don't you think of it as a gift?" Ansem suggested. Riku wasn't used to getting gifts like that, either, and it made her a little nervous, but she'd told herself that she wasn't going to worry anymore.

"...Thank you," she said.

"Think nothing of it," he responded, bowing slightly. If he wasn't before, he was definitely smiling now. "I understand you must deal with the intruders now, but once you've gotten your Keyblade back, come and see me again." Riku nodded, then turned and continued towards the waterfalls.

The only detour Riku took after that was to her room for more ethers and something else that she attached to her belt. After that, she continued out of the castle and to the waterfall valley with its giant, crumbling staircase. Very soon, everything would change, permanently. Kairi, Sora, the Keyblade, and Kingdom Hearts: it would all be exactly as it should. With these thoughts driving her on, Riku felt completely prepared.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Riku had let her newly-armored aura drop until she was prepared to fight again, but when she finally encountered the first intruder in the waterfall valley, she realized that she wouldn't actually need it to win.

The roaring animal at the apex of the ruined staircase was some sort of large beast, with sharp horns and large fangs. It was easily twice as tall as Riku, its only coverings being a pair of tattered shorts and a cape, but it was moving slowly and walking stilted. Riku figured that it had probably used something like a dark portal to get to Hollow Bastion because it was still breathing heavily.

This wouldn't be much of a fight. This was a good thing, because out of the corner of her eye, Riku also noticed three figures at the base of the large staircase. It'd probably take them a while to get to the top, but Riku had gotten here just in time.

"Where is Belle?" the beast growled. Riku wasn't even sure which of the girls Belle was.

"You should turn around and go back the way you came," Riku replied. “I’m surprised you even got here in the first place.”

"She is here, so I followed… I believed I would find her, and I arrived here, so this must be where she is. I came to get her, and I'm not leaving without her!" It bared its fangs at Riku, crouching as if to spring, and Riku called Soul Eater into her hand, sliding into her own battle stance in response. She wouldn't need to use her aura, judging by how ragged the beast looked, but it probably wouldn't go away without a fight. "I know you have her here. Where is she?"

"Not anywhere you'll be getting to." The beast lunged, and Riku quickly raised Soul Eater to block its claws. It was easily large enough to overpower in a direct clash with its weight, even recovering from a portal, so Riku decided to use her speed to her advantage.

Ducking under the beast's extended arm, Riku aimed for its belly. It was fast enough to barely avoid her blade, but Riku just adjusted accordingly to make sure she was faster. She spun around to strike it in the side, feinted left, then darted back to the right. This time, she was successful, and opened a long gash on the beast's arm.

The beast howled in pain and staggered back. To Riku's surprise, however, it righted itself only a moment later and sprung at her again, just as furious as before. Riku quickly brought Soul Eater up in defense, and the sharp claws from the beast's good arm clanged against her blade once more. The animal bore its massive weight down on her, completely ignoring the fact that it was bleeding, and Riku decided to end things quickly, before her size became a disadvantage. She let the claw slip off her blade to the ground, a few archaic staircase-tiles cracking from the impact, and struck again.

Her second attack caught the beast in the thigh, sending it reeling again and collapsing onto one knee with a grunt. No sooner had that happened then the three other intruders arrived at the top of the crumbling staircase.

"So, you finally showed up," Riku said, straightening and dismissing Soul Eater; she wouldn't need it anymore. "About time." She let her gaze pass calmly from one face to another. Cold fire licked at her insides, but Riku held it back for a few more moments, forcing herself to wait. She wanted to do this the right way.

"Riku, what are you doing?" Sora glared at her, hands gripping the Keyblade... He was so disgustingly self-righteous. "Just stop it!" Well. There were ways of dealing with that.

"You really have _no_ idea what's going on, do you?" Riku retorted, meeting his gaze with her own glare. "It's _always_ been like this." Riku had spent the last ten years striving for everything she'd been promised, and Sora had been playing make-believe.

Sora had never been able to tell the difference between the two.

"We've _always_ competed," she continued, hearing the fury slowly start to seep out through her voice. "I've always pushed you, and you've always pushed me." Part of her had actually thought, once, that this was how it would always be. How it was meant to be, no matter what else happened.

But she'd been proven wrong about that, hadn't she? That part had been made very clear. Sora was still gripping onto the Keyblade, but no matter what Riku said, all he did was stare.

"But it can't stay like this." Riku’s breath felt loud in her ears, even over the constant white noise of the waterfalls. "It has to _end_." By then, it was an easy decision to make. "There can't be two Keyblade Masters." She held her hand out, "Let the Keyblade choose—" and reached, "—its _true_ master," and closed her hand around silver-and-gold metal. It felt warm, and it felt like hers.

" _Huh?_ " Sora looked like the idea hadn't even crossed his mind.

"Maleficent was right." She felt her lips pull back from her teeth. "You just don't have what it takes." She remembered what Ansem had said, too, and while it had seemed strange at the time, it made perfect sense now. Riku raised her Keyblade above her head. "Only the Keyblade Master can open the secret door and revolutionize the world."

"But..." Riku looked back at Sora. "I'm the one who fought all the way here with the Keyblade." Did he expect her to feel sorry for him? She hoped he felt _miserable_.

"No," Riku corrected, voice cold, "you were just the delivery boy." She let the hand holding her Keyblade go back to her side, and with her other hand, she removed the thing she'd attached to her belt. "I'm going to go save Kairi now." She threw the wooden sword at his feet, and Sora fell to his knees in front of it. "You can play pretend with that." With that, she turned to leave.

"The King said to follow the key," the duck said. The dog debated this with him a few moments, but both of them soon followed Riku onto the gondola to the castle. Riku didn't like either of them much, but she decided she'd figure out a way to make them useful soon enough.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The first thing Riku did once she got back inside the castle was close and lock the main gates behind her. After that, she started slowly making her way to the higher floors, disabling lifts and securing the perimeter as she went. The animals followed her the whole way. It was annoying.

Riku was glad she wouldn't have to put up with them for long, though. Now that she had her Keyblade back, it was only a matter of time until she found the last Princess, got into Kingdom Hearts, and returned Kairi’s heart to her. Once Kairi had her heart back, she would wake up, and then the two of them could leave this place and go wherever they wanted.

There were so many worlds they could visit, just the two of them. Just her and Kairi, and when Kairi saw that Riku had the Keyblade, she’d—

"My name is Donald, Royal Court Magician," the duck declared. Riku gritted her teeth and kept walking.

"...Oof. Goofy," the dog added, then continued in a mumble. "You didn't have to elbow me..." Neither of them were especially intelligible.

"Goofy's captain of the Royal Knights," the duck added. Riku kept walking. Once she was done shutting the gondolas down, she'd go visit Kairi again, and after that, she'd tell Ansem the good news about her Keyblade. "The King sent us on a very important mission. I think from now on, we should—"

"Just don't get in my way, alright?" Riku said. The duck shut up, looking cross. Much better. Now she could concentrate properly. "I have a lot of things I need to—"

She was interrupted herself by a distant roar. It sounded like the beast had gotten help working the gondolas. Some people just couldn't take a hint.

"I have a lot of things I need to get done," Riku repeated slowly, trying to keep her temper in check. She turned and started stalking back the way she came, her boots clicking loudly on the stones.

"Uh, are you alright?" the dog asked.

"It's none of your business," Riku snapped.

"Hmm..." Riku ignored the dog and made her way back to the entrance hall. It was annoying to have this delay, but it was better to deal with the intruders before they got loose too far inside the castle.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

By the time Sora and the beast arrived in the entrance hall—having unlocked the front gate via vandalizing the gear mechanisms outside, apparently—Riku was waiting for them. They were both glaring at her, but Riku ignored that for a few moments longer.

She'd formulated a plan for the beast while she was waiting, which she now put into action. She called a Heartless and sent it behind the intruders, covering it in thick layers of darkness until it gained the shape of a girl in a long gown. She didn’t know exactly what Belle was supposed to look like, but she hoped it was able to fool the beast. Riku had never tried to make something like this before, but the Heartless was obedient and the hallway shadowy enough to get the job done.

"Belle?" The beast turned, sensing the image behind him, and promptly rushed after it. It halted when the image melted back into a Heartless, but by then, it was already out of the room. Riku raised her Keyblade and locked the door to the hall. Now, she'd have one less distraction.

Sora, who had spun his head to watch the beast's flight, was now glaring at her again, gripping the wooden sword in his hands like he was actually trying to seem threatening. If she didn't hate him as much as she did right now, it might actually have been funny.

"This isn't a _game_ , Sora," Riku said. "Just give up, already." It wasn't like she spent all her time away from him just twiddling her thumbs.

"I'm not leaving without Kairi."

"Kairi doesn't need you," she responded, feeling her temper start to rise again but keeping her fury in a tight knot in her chest. She gripped her Keyblade tighter and called her aura to the surface, feeling her new armor form and cling to her once more. "And the darkness is gonna destroy you."

Sora frowned at the sight of her armor, but he didn't move and was looking as determined as ever.

"You're wrong, Riku," he said. Riku had decided a while ago that she was past agreeing with what Sora thought of her. "The darkness can destroy my body, but it'll never touch my heart." He was just... grasping at straws, wasn't he? "As long as it stays with my friends, it'll never die."

Was he just going to go on and on like this? Riku was _tired_ of people telling her how to do things, _especially_ when it was _Sora_ , who had the utter _gall_ to talk about his _friends_ in front of _Riku_.

"Well, we'll just see about that," Riku responded, and she took the knot of cold fury in her free fist and shot it out at Sora as a ball of blue-black flame.

Sora just stared at her, eyes widening, and Riku met his gaze as the dark fireball sped towards him. Sora could judge her all he wanted, but he could never make the decisions Riku'd had to make. No matter how much he carried on, in the end, he was still going to die because Riku was the stronger one.

Both of them were surprised when the fire was blocked and dispersed in a cloud of black smoke.

" _What?_ " Riku demanded. The dog was standing in front of Sora, its shield out in front of its body. When had it decided to change sides again? "What about your king? Isn't that betrayal?" she asked, gritting her teeth.

"I'd never betray the King!" The dog responded. "But I'm not gonna betray Sora either, because he's become one of my best buddies, after all the stuff we've been through together." It turned to address the duck. "Donald, could ya tell the King I'm really sorry?"

"We can apologize together," the duck quacked, running to the dog's side. So much for making the animals useful. "...All for one and one for all, you know."

"Thanks, guys," Sora said. This was so cheesy it was nauseating.

 _Whatever_. It didn't _matter_ what they did, or that Sora was glaring at her again. He still couldn't beat her without the Keyblade.

"How are you gonna fight without a weapon?" Riku pointed out, grinning sharply. A wooden sword was enough to get through minor scuffles, but Sora _had_ to know that it couldn't possibly stand up to Riku's Keyblade.

"I don't need the Keyblade," Sora insisted. Was he just bluffing, now? If so, it wasn't a very convincing bluff. "I've got a better weapon: my heart."

This time, Riku _did_ laugh.

"Your _heart?_ " He couldn't actually be _serious_ about this, could he? It was just too ridiculous. "What good is that weak little thing going to do for you?"

"Although my heart may be weak, it’s not alone. It’s grown with each new experience, and it’s found a home with all the friends I’ve made." He... he really _was_ serious. Sora _actually believed_ the words that were coming out of his mouth. "I’ve become a part of their heart just as they’ve become a part of mine." Who even _said_ stuff like that? "And if they think of me now and then… If they don’t forget me… Then our hearts will be one." He was... he was just... "I don’t need a weapon. My friends are my power!"

It was the most horrible thing he had ever said to her. Even now, after how far they'd come from home, after trying to kill him multiple times, Riku still remembered their life back on the islands. They'd known each other since they were _babies_ , and Sora didn't even have the decency to acknowledge that, not once. Riku was never the one who had abandoned anyone; it was _Sora_ who had decided to reject _her_ for people who barely knew him. And now _Sora_ was standing here, shoving all of that in her face in the cruelest way possible.

It would be one thing if he'd done it on purpose. Riku would have understood if he'd said it because he was angry at her, or wanted to get back at her for taking her Keyblade back, or for the Antisora, or even because Kairi didn't need more than one prince. It might have taken time, Riku would still have been angry, and it would have still hurt, but she would have at least understood it.

But for Sora to look so _proud_ of himself, so triumphant, for him to simply _not know_... Riku would _never_ be able to comprehend _that_. She didn't know how or _why_ Sora could say something so viciously alien while looking at her as if he expected her to accept it as valid or even agree. He was both as he'd always been and completely unrecognizable at the same time, and Riku just couldn't understand it. She didn't know what to do with a world where Sora could say that to her. She just didn't understand _anything_ anymore.

It was in that moment that the Keyblade vanished from her hand and reappeared in Sora's. Riku looked at her hand with a short, stuttered breath, then back at Sora. Keeping her gaze firmly on him, she closed her fist around Soul Eater, took two more uneven breaths, and then launched herself at him with a wordless yell.

Sora blocked her first strike, but Riku just spun in a half-circle and attacked again. The duck and dog had pulled their weapons out by now, and Riku kept moving to avoid being surrounded. As she dodged the shield the dog threw at her and locked blades with Sora, the duck used its wand to fire bolts of lightning around her. Riku grimaced, ready to jump away from as many as she could, but her armor thankfully deflected the ones she couldn't avoid. She shook the attack off and pressed forward again, glad that in comparison to her earlier fight with the beast, her height advantage against Sora made up a little for having to fight three-against-one.

"Sora..." Her voice came out low and rough. She was also glad that she was too angry for tears, though her breath was still too uneven for her to say much else. Sora was returning her attacks blow for blow, despite wearing an insultingly calm expression, and looked as if he was about to respond, but before he could, the dog barreled between the two of them. Riku jumped back to minimize damage, and escaped with only a clip to her off-hand shoulder; it'd hurt a lot later, but she wouldn't let that stop her now.

While she was readying her next charge, Sora took the Keyblade and _threw_ it at her. When had he learned _that_ move? Riku blocked it just in time, but instead of the Keyblade just dropping to the floor, it simply boomeranged back into Sora's hand. He could even _throw_ it, and it still went back? That was too much. Riku fired off another flaming ball of darkness at one of the animals— it didn't matter which one, really, because the other one would get distracted by trying to heal it—and lunged at Sora once more. Sora caught her blade with his own, spun, and struck her neatly in the ribs.

"Nngh..." It didn't even bleed, since she'd been hit with the shaft rather than the Keyblade's teeth, but it really hurt to breathe now. Riku coughed and jumped back again to reorient herself. Half a second later, she had to dodge a large chunk of ice the duck sent at her; she managed to avoid being hit, but while her armor kept her from feeling pain from proximity to the magic, she still felt the chill as it whizzed by her head. She used the momentum of her dodge to stab at Sora again, another wordless exclamation on her lips, but he only parried the blow.

Apart from the normal sounds of exertion present in most battles, Sora hadn't said a single word to her. Whatever he'd thought of saying before the dog had interrupted them, he'd apparently decided against it since. That, combined with his utterly calm expression, only served to agitate Riku more. She struck again, the force making Sora skid back. Her blood was rushing in her ears, and there was a sharp pain every time she took a breath, but she didn't let up, pressing forward as hard as she could.

Two more strikes later, Soul Eater drew a crimson line on one of Sora's forearms, but even then, Sora maintained his silence, only letting out a short, sharp exclamation. He was still glaring at her, but even though neither of them were holding back, it still felt like he wasn't _doing_ anything, and Riku just couldn't _stand_ it. This strange serenity of his was worse than any glares or harsh words. With another sound ripped from her throat, Riku swung again, gaze locked with Sora's and tunneling from her frustration, and Sora simply ducked under her swing and hit her again, the shaft of the Keyblade slamming into her right across the chest.

The force of the blow sent Riku back, vision spotting, and she barely caught herself from simply crashing on the stone floor. It took a few seconds for her to be able to breathe at all again—and even then, it was a considerable effort—and when she could, Sora was standing across the room, pose relaxed, Keyblade in hand. The animals were flanking him, their own weapons out as well. Riku's armor had finally dissipated after that last blow, but she couldn't concentrate enough to bring it back. An ether might help, but when she stared back at Sora, still gasping, she knew she'd been beaten this time. On top of that... there was a part of Riku that just couldn't look at him anymore right now, so she turned and ran towards the higher parts of the castle. Sora didn't follow.

Later. She would fight him again later, and she would definitely win, but for now, she had to regroup.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Even after downing potions and ethers for recovery from the fight, Riku still felt like she couldn't breathe properly. It wasn't strictly physical, since the potions had taken care of the damage to her ribs and shoulder, but it kept distracting her. It was like pins in her chest and a churning in her stomach. A nagging thought at the back of her head said it was the same as when she'd arrived back in Hollow Bastion from Neverland, but she pushed it out of her mind. Riku decided instead that maybe she would go move Kairi to a safer place, where Sora wouldn't be able to stumble across her.

That thought brought Sora to the front of her mind once more. After all Riku had done, after how long she'd tried to help Kairi before anyone else cared, after the _years_ she'd spent trying to become a prince, none of it seemed to do her any good now. Even after getting her Keyblade back, Sora had just taken it from her again, and without the Keyblade, nothing would ever work the way it was supposed to. She'd come so close only to be derailed again, and the longer she thought about it, the worse she felt.

"Why..." Her breathing was still labored, and it came out more gasped than spoken. Her boots echoed off the high, stone walls of the chapel, green candlelight flickering and stained glass painting faint outlines on the floor. Just a little farther, and then she'd get to Kairi. "It was mine..." How could Sora _do_ that?

"Riku." She spun, searching for the figure that slowly melted out of a shadowy corner of the room. "What is it?"

"Ansem..." She hadn’t noticed when he'd arrived, or even if he'd been here the whole time, which showed just how distracted she'd been. Ansem had said that he wanted to talk to her again, but... how was she going to tell him what happened without embarrassing herself even more? "I..." He waited patiently for her to continue, which she pushed herself to do, despite how tightly wound she felt from the events of the past few hours. "I got my Keyblade back, but..." she flushed, looking away, "but Sora took it again."

"It's only the strongest and surest heart that can claim the Keyblade," Ansem responded, walking toward her just as steadily as he spoke. The jumbled mess of emotions inside Riku just churned worse than before.

"So my heart's weaker than his?" What was she supposed to do about _that?_ She had to do _something_.

"For that instant, it was." This was _horrible_. "But you can become stronger, Riku."

While she still felt upset about it, the second bit of news made her feel a little better; _Ansem_ could tell Riku how she could fix things. He was close enough to her now that she could smell him clearly, and he was still approaching her.

"What should I do?" she asked. Riku would go through more training if it was necessary, but she wasn't looking forward to spending a lot of time when there were things she needed to do _now_. She readied herself for talk of more practice and stupid little missions for Maleficent, but it never came.

"You've shown no fear in accepting the darkness so far, but you must plunge even deeper if you're to strengthen your heart." Ansem was standing right in front of her, and while she still couldn't see his face inside the hood of his cloak, his scent was so thick and sharp that it was impossible to focus on anything but what he was saying.

"How?" Riku was starting to feel lightheaded again from her proximity to Ansem, but she wasn't worrying anymore.

"It's really quite simple," Ansem said. "Just open your heart to the darkness. That's all." Riku tried to meet his gaze, especially since he was starting to sound pleased again, but there was only blackness inside his hood and his deep voice was the only clue to his expression. "Let your heart, your being, become darkness itself."

"I..." It was still difficult for Riku to breathe properly, and her own voice was very quiet. "I need to..."

"Riku." Ansem's voice was so calm, and Riku felt herself go still in anticipation, though of what, she wasn't sure. "I'll show you." Riku kept looking at him as he moved closer. He called something like an aura around himself, blacker than anything she'd ever seen, and Riku let her own aura surround her once more. A wave of something like dizziness swept over her, and her knees buckled. She started to fall backwards with a gasp, but a hand at her back caught her, holding her up, the other hovering over her chest, and Riku's vision focused slowly on the blue stained glass petals of the chapel's ceiling.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It would be an understatement to say that it was not one of the better decisions Riku had made.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Riku's feet walked calmly from the chapel to the Grand Hall. She was wearing her armor again, and when she entered the lower part of the hall, she was moved to one of the crystal containers, her gauntlet-covered fingers brushing lightly against the glass. Maleficent was on the higher level of the hall, preoccupied with the machinery, but that was ignored for the time being.

 _This one's Belle, by the way_ , Ansem said. The girl in the container was pale, with a long, yellow gown and brown hair pulled back in an elegant updo. Like the others, she was in suspended animation.

Riku remembered the way Ansem had caught her in his arms when she fell, just like she was a princess. He’d told her that her years of waiting alone were over, that everything would be perfect now that they were together. A princess had no need to fight, only to stay suspended, to let her prince act on her behalf.

 _You're a liar_ , Riku replied quietly, without inflection.

 _What reason have I to lie to you, Riku? That really is the girl's name. I thought you'd want to know, since you were discussing her earlier._ He knew that wasn't what she'd meant, but from the tone in his voice, her accusation only served to amuse him.

It was when Riku’d told Ansem that she’d never wanted to be a princess that he’d started laughing at her. He’d found her memories of her prince from when she was young and thrown them back into her face. He was still holding one of her hands in his when she realized why the other one was over her heart.

 _Liar_ , Riku repeated, barely above a whisper. Her mouth was pulled into Ansem's smile. None of that conversation had been spoken aloud.

Within her heart, Riku was behind glass herself, an invisible wall between what she saw through her eyes and what her body was doing. She still felt her muscles move and still heard the sounds of machinery from the upper floor, but she had no control over them. There was a strange, disorienting distance between herself and her body, like she was registering her own actions a second too late. Ansem was the one operating her arms and legs, talking to her from inside her heart, building on his own strength from hers, making himself comfortable in the body he'd stolen.

Riku’s memories of her prince could not keep Ansem from taking control, but her worries for Sora and Kairi helped pull her to her ethereal feet. She dragged herself with bare palms up the glass wall until she was standing, watching Ansem pretend to be her.

 _You should try being a little more grateful, Riku_ , Ansem continued, starting to walk Riku's body up towards the keyhole and Maleficent. He was there in her heart, too, standing right behind her, a hand on her shoulder. _This kind of fickleness does you a discredit._ This time, Riku realized she shouldn't respond to the bait. _See? I'm not unreasonable. We can get along with each other if you learn to be obedient._ It seemed like he found ways to say horrible things to her no matter what she did, though.

 _I'm **never** going to obey you._ She'd ended up responding, after all, but didn't catch herself until after he'd already heard.

 _Yes, you will_ , Ansem said in a pleasant tone. From behind the glass wall of her eyes, Riku felt a familiar, ice-cold hand sink down into her back and close around her heart again; she shuddered and pressed her lips as closely together as she could to stop any sound from escaping. _One way or another._ Her physical body was still smiling when Ansem approached the keyhole.

"I see the path has emerged at last," Ansem said, only _mostly_ sounding like Riku, his deep voice a satisfied undercurrent in contrast to her own flat tones. Maleficent turned and nodded in acknowledgement; if the witch heard the second voice, she made no mention of it.

"Yes," Maleficent replied, smiling in acknowledgment, "the keyhole to the darkness." The space inside the three-pronged-heart frame was still changing colors from time to time, but it wasn't rippling as much as it had been before. It was almost complete.

"If it's unlocked, the Heartless will overrun this world." It was both a threat and a promise. When the door to a world was opened, Riku realized, the only thing that happened was that it was overtaken by the darkness.

This was what Ansem had said Riku must do. This was how a Heartless in need of the Keyblade had found himself possession of a body with which to wield it.

And he'd told Riku he'd been _ill_.

 _Very good, Riku, but keep paying attention._ Inside, Riku stayed silent and tried not to shiver. _It would be disappointing if you missed anything._

"The darkness holds no power over me," Maleficent boasted. If she knew what had happened between Riku and Ansem, she clearly didn't care. Had that been part of their deal? "Rather, I will use its power to conquer all worlds."

Ansem laughed. "Such confidence."

So he was planning on getting rid of Maleficent, after all. He turned Riku, then, to look down on the lower level, and Riku's hand was stretched out before her. Multiple lights appeared, which Riku soon realized were coming from the chests of the princesses. There was a flash, and Riku's hand closed on a black Keyblade. There weren't words to describe how badly Riku wanted to vomit.

 _The proper response here is 'Thank you for giving me a Keyblade'_ , Ansem commented. Riku's eyes were dragged down the length of the blade, black spikes tracing the negative space around a heart shape at the teeth, to the red handguard and blunt pommel, no keychain present at all.

"Oh." Maleficent's eyebrows raised, apparently inspecting the Keyblade as well, and a smirk appeared on her face. "Now, we only need to—" She turned back towards the keyhole, then cut herself off, frowning. "It's still not complete? But the Princesses..." She looked from the keyhole to the Princesses again, clearly searching for an explanation.

Instead of answering the witch's question, Ansem merely turned Riku's head to look down at Kairi, who was still lying unconscious in front of the machinery.

"Without her heart, the last Princess will never be able to release her power."

 _...What?_ On the outside, Riku's body merely assumed a contemplative expression, but from behind the wall of her eyes, Riku could tell that Ansem was smiling. _Kairi's not—_

 _Of course she is._ But Riku had been trying to help Kairi— _That girl would have turned into a Heartless by now, were she not completely pure._ Maleficent, now looking at Kairi as well, made no comments of protestation. She'd probably known all along. _As for **you** , Riku_, and Ansem's deliberate juxtaposition didn't escape Riku's notice, either, _you'll see her heart returned soon enough._

They were interrupted by sounds of battle getting closer.

"The King's fools are here," Maleficent said.

 _Sora!_ Riku had absolutely no sense of how long it'd been since she'd last seen Sora, only that it felt like forever. All the time she'd been angry at him... what had she been thinking? The witch couldn’t hear Riku, of course, and simply continued talking.

"I'll deal with them myself." Then, Maleficent turned and left the hall. On the outside, Riku's body was smiling again as Ansem watched her go.

_Sora's going to win._

_Are you waiting for a boy to save you, Riku?_ From behind the wall, she could feel Ansem's breath on her ear. Riku flushed and pressed her hands against the glass, but it didn't budge. _It certainly suits you quite nicely, but it's also a bit hypocritical, don't you think?_

 _He's... he's going to win_ , she insisted. _Sora's gonna—_

 _It doesn't actually matter whether that boy or Maleficent is victorious_ , Ansem interrupted, voice low and deliberate. _I need them both gone eventually. Even if he does win, do you really think that's going to change your situation?_

 _Sora's gonna beat Maleficent, and... and then he's gonna beat you._ It was difficult to concentrate enough to say even that much, her voice sounding stringy and at a higher pitch than normal. She was aware that Ansem had gotten her to say something again, but she refused to agree with him.

 _That's not likely_ , Ansem laughed. He placed a hand on the center of her back again, and Riku started shaking, biting her lip to keep herself from saying anything else. _You tried to kill him, and now you think he's going to **rescue** you? After it's been proven how little he cares for you?_ Riku's head was moved to look back at Kairi. _No, I think the only one he's going to try to save is the **actual** princess._ Riku's breathing stopped pretending to be normal after that.

She remembered the way Ansem had laughed, after he'd found out what Riku thought about princes and princesses. He'd called her a lot of things worse than just a hypocrite back then, too; even though Riku was doing her best to concentrate now on Kairi while her eyes were still gazing down at the redhead, she couldn't help being reminded of it all.

Shouts started coming from the direction of the chapel. Riku knew it was probably stupid to keep responding, but she had to when she heard their voices, even though she couldn't discern the words.

_S-Sora's gonna—_

_He's going to be much too preoccupied to actually save anyone, you know_ , Ansem said, his hand pressing more deliberately on her back in the space behind her eyes. She bit her lip again, hard enough to draw blood this time, and tried not to hyperventilate. _I'm looking forward to showing you what I've got planned._ Riku still had no idea how long it'd been since she'd last seen Sora, but she had even less of an idea what to do once they met again. _If he defeats Maleficent, you can even finish the job you started and kill him yourself._

Riku couldn't even talk right now, so she just shook her head, hair falling forward to cover the redness on her face as best she could.

 _I'm not unreasonable, Riku_ , he sounded a little angry, now, _but you mustn't start throwing yourself at a boy simply because you don't like the situation you've gotten yourself into anymore. We can get along if you only try._ No matter how hard Riku strained, everything was still disconnected. _If you want to play along with that boy rushing in to save a princess, that's one thing_ , the hand sunk into her back, closing around her heart again, and something spasmed, Riku's fingernails scraping the glass behind her eyes, _but **you** belong to me._

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After some time, Ansem turned his attention back towards the castle as a whole. It was quiet now; the battle between Sora and Maleficent must have ended.

 _Let's go see how things are_ , Ansem said. He made a portal to a courtyard within the castle Riku had never seen before. The surrounding architecture and thorned design on the floor, however, reminded her of one witch in particular. Just as Riku’d suspected, Maleficent entered the courtyard through a portal of her own, leaning heavily on her staff and clutching at her chest with one hand. This courtyard had to be part of Maleficent's private quarters.

"Do you need some help?" Ansem asked, with something more a smirk than a smile playing across Riku's face.

_...I told you Sora would win._

_Quiet._

The witch looked over at Ansem and tried to stand a little straighter, the hand over her chest falling to her side, but the other still clutching her staff tightly. She was about to respond, but was quickly interrupted when Sora came running through the closing portal, the dog and duck close behind. Sora had his Keyblade out and was moving his gaze quickly over the courtyard.

"Riku!" Sora took a step forward, then stopped himself halfway.

_Sora!_

_Riku, I need to concentrate—_

_Sora, it's not—!_ She pounded her fists against the giant, transparent wall.

 _ **Quiet** , I said._ He twisted something, and Riku was cut off with a gasp, freezing in place. _Now, then._

"Is that...?" The duck was staring at the Keyblade in Riku's hands.

"Yes," Ansem replied, smirking fully now and holding it up for Sora and the animals to see. "It's a Keyblade, but unlike yours, this one has the power to unlock hearts." The smirk was pulled into a grin so wide as to be almost manic. "Allow me to demonstrate." Suddenly, he spun to face Maleficent, and Riku's arm shot out, the dark Keyblade plunging into the witch's chest. "Behold!"

"Wha—" Maleficent's eyes widened, and a green-flame aura began to gather around her.

"Now, open your heart to darkness!" Ansem called. "Become darkness itself!" Riku's fists shook against the glass wall in silent fury as her mouth was formed into the words. He'd made her say it like that on _purpose_. Ansem only grinned wider, and by the time he'd pulled the blade back out and moved Riku out of Maleficent's way, the witch's shocked expression had turned into a deranged reflection of her usual smile. Maleficent started laughing, and Ansem escaped into another portal before green flame and black thorns consumed the courtyard.

However, instead of being moved into a different area of the castle, Riku's body was stopped halfway, surrounded completely by darkness save a shimmery window looking at the courtyard. Riku had never liked staying in this dark place between destinations whenever she used the portals herself, but it didn't seem to bother Ansem in the slightest.

 _This is called full command of the darkness_ , Ansem said, smug. _Now, keep paying attention._

Riku didn't have anywhere else to look besides the window to the courtyard anyway, and when she saw what was happening, her breath caught in her throat. From within the center of the ever-expanding green flame, Maleficent's shape twisted and grew into that of an enormous, black dragon. Was Maleficent a Heartless now? Even though Maleficent was a witch, it was still horrifying to watch that happen to someone.

Sora and the animals were quick to retaliate, however, and began attacking the dragon with vigor. The dragon often swiped its claws or shot emerald-green flame out of its mouth—and Riku felt a little jolt of worry each time it did—but Sora thankfully managed to avoid most of the attacks. Even in the times he was hit, there seemed to be enough potions or curative magic handy that he was back on his feet momentarily. For all its size and the speed of its claws, though, the dragon lacked the same maneuverability as its opponents. It seemed to take a long time, but Sora and the animals steadily wore it down enough for Sora to make a running leap and slash it across the throat.

 _Showoff_ , Ansem scoffed. The dragon screeched and started thrashing around the courtyard.

 _He still won_ , Riku responded quietly. _I told you he would win_.

Sora jumped backwards and out of the way of the dragon to stand next to the animals at the edge of the courtyard.

 _Let's not get ahead of ourselves or be so overeager as to neglect the bigger picture, Riku_. Black smoke billowed from the dragon, and it slowly became consumed by green fire. When the flames died down, the only thing left in the center of the courtyard was a scorched, empty black robe. Despite Riku’s distaste for the witch’s often-cloying attitude, it was still chilling to see her reduced to nothing but ragged cloth. Even Maleficent didn't deserve that. _Everything is going exactly as I've intended_.

Ansem brought Riku back through the portal and into the courtyard once more.

"It's ironic," he said with Riku's voice, though Riku could still hear the constant undercurrent of Ansem's own amusement. "She was just another puppet, after all."

_Sora, don't listen to him!_

_It's alright, you're still my favorite. I'll be keeping you around for a while._

_Sora!_ Riku pounded her fist against the glass again.

_Hush. You know he can't hear you._

"What's going on?" the duck demanded. The dog was still observing everything silently.

"The Heartless were using Maleficent from the beginning," Ansem responded, walking Riku's body closer towards the witch's destroyed robe. "She failed to notice the darkness in her heart, eating away at her." Again, there weren't words for how badly Riku wanted to throw up right now. Ansem stepped on the robe, rubbing it into the stones of the courtyard with obvious relish. "A fitting end for such a fool."

Slowly, the robe disintegrated further, until it disappeared completely. In the end, there wasn't even a scorch mark.

Ansem moved Riku's head to look at Sora again, smirking. Sora was frowning still, and while he still had his Keyblade out, it didn't look like he was going to attack. He looked... confused, actually, but when he took a step forward, Ansem made another portal back to the Grand Hall.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Thankfully, it wasn't long before Sora and the animals arrived in the Grand Hall themselves. Ansem had Riku sitting on one of the brass pipes above the keyhole, looking down on the inevitable conflict. One of her legs was propped up, arm resting on her knee, in the same way she'd always sat on the Paopu tree back on the islands.

 _That's right_ , Ansem said. _And soon, the door will open_. Riku did her best to ignore what he was saying and tried to focus instead on watching Sora venture into the hall.

Sora and the animals stopped with alarm as they came upon the Princesses in the crystal containers. They attempted getting the girls out, without success; Sora even seemed to recognize a few, one of which was Jasmine. When the three of them realized the Princesses were stuck for the time being, Sora led the way as they crept cautiously up the stairs. He hadn't seemed to notice where Riku was yet.

 _Sora!_ She pounded a fist against the glass wall. _Sora, I'm—_

_Patience, Riku. We mustn't rush things._

The moment Sora stepped onto the higher level, Ansem waved Riku's hand subtly; an invisible barrier now separated Sora from the dog and duck. Sora didn't notice because he'd just discovered Kairi.

"Kairi!" He rushed over to the redhead, who was still lying unresponsive in front of the machines, and tried to shake her awake. "Kairi, open your eyes!"

"It's no use," Ansem said calmly, still looking down at Sora from where he'd perched Riku. "That girl has lost her heart. She cannot wake up."

_Liar._

_**Patience** , I said._

"What?" Sora set Kairi back down in front of the machine, looked up, and then narrowed his eyes. "You... you're not Riku."

Ansem only smirked. Riku's cheeks were starting to get sore from all the grinning.

 _Sora!_ He'd noticed! _Sora, you have to—_

"The keyhole cannot be completed as long as the last Princess of Heart still sleeps," Ansem continued.

Sora halted.

"...The princess? Kairi's a princess?"

"Yes, and without her power, the keyhole will remain incomplete.” Ansem floated Riku down to stand in front of the keyhole, her skirt fanning out behind her as her boots touched lightly on the floor. “It's time she awakened." Riku could still feel Ansem smiling through her mouth and hear his deliberate voice under her own, dull tones.

Sora's hands were balled into fists, his eyebrows sharply furrowed.

"Wh-whoever you are," Sora demanded, cutting the air with one hand before reforming it into a fist, "give Riku her heart back!" The lines of his body were taut despite the slight waver in his voice, but Riku was sure that she was shaking enough for the both of them.

 _Sora..._ Riku swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to calm herself down a little. Sora was going to do something about all this. He knew what was going on, and he'd find a way to stop Ansem. Even if Riku herself had to be destroyed in the process, at least Sora would beat Ansem. Riku would rather die than stay like this anyway, but it would be alright soon because Sora would—

"But first, you must give the Princess back _her_ heart." Ansem pointed the dark Keyblade directly at Sora, and though Sora was a good twenty feet from Riku, he clutched at his chest as if he'd been struck.

"...What?" Sora fell to one knee; Riku had never seen his eyes so wide before.

 _No..._ A horrible sinking feeling appeared in the pit of Riku's stomach. Ansem couldn't mean—

_**Yes** , Riku._

Sora's other knee gave out, and his palms smacked on the floor of the hall.

 _Sora..._ That was—it _couldn't_ —

"Don't you see?" Ansem's voice was starting to raise in volume, and Riku's voice was dragged up along with it. With slow, steady steps, he brought Riku closer to where Sora was kneeling. "The princess's heart is responding."

 _Don't listen to him!_ Riku resumed pounding against the glass with renewed vigor, but still, nothing happened. Her throat was starting to feel raw. _Sora!_

"It has been there all along." The strange dual-voice coming from Riku filled the hall, now. "Kairi's heart rests within you!"

"Kairi's inside me?" Sora looked down at his chest, then back up at Riku. "Who are you, anyway?"

"I know everything there is to know." Riku's arms were spread out from her sides, the two voices booming just as expansively as the boast. "I am Ansem, Seeker of Darkness!" Then, the dark Keyblade was brought into a ready stance.

 _Stop it!_ Riku kept pounding at the glass behind her eyes. She'd be more upset at Ansem's twisting of his title to her, if only she weren't so worried about Sora and Kairi.

"Now, Princess! Release your power and complete the keyhole! Lead me into everlasting darkness!"

 _You can't do this!_ As Riku’s knuckles hit the glass, a couple of them split and started bleeding.

 _Watch me._ Ansem raised the black Keyblade over Riku's head and swung down in a swift arc. Riku could only observe, breath caught in her throat and every single nerve in her body vibrating in time with the Keyblade in her hand. When the dark Keyblade struck, Sora and Kairi would—

"Forget it!" Sora had... Sora blocked it! And he was staring defiantly back, rising to his feet as he pushed Riku away. "There's no way you're taking Kairi's heart!"

"Come, then," Ansem taunted, and Sora rushed towards Riku to make an attack of his own. The strike was parried, but Ansem only moved Riku to swing at Sora again. They continued trading blows in this manner, circling each other before clashing and separating, like birds of prey.

Sora was the one to land the first blow, and he wasn't shy about using the teeth of his Keyblade this time. He opened up a gash in Riku's arm; the armor split and peeled back, smoking slightly and revealing the red on her arm underneath. It still hurt, despite Ansem being the one moving Riku's body, and while the armor quickly knit itself back together with more darkness, Riku still felt the blood sticking to her arm. In a way, the pain was a good thing; it meant that Sora had a chance at beating Ansem, and Riku didn't feel as disconnected.

 _How fascinating. Are you a masochist, Riku?_ Luckily, she didn't have to answer that question because Sora attacked again. It wasn't long before Ansem drew blood, as well, the teeth around the blade’s hollow heart aimed at Sora's chest and deflected to merely a slice on his shoulder. Sora jumped back and started casting a healing spell, but Ansem made Riku quickly dash forward to interrupt.

The battle continued in this manner, until both Riku and Sora were bloodied all over, their attacks and counters growing increasingly vicious and dramatic. Eventually, Ansem was near-constantly making Riku dash from spot to spot, large pillars of darkness erupting out from the floor around her. Sora was jumping and dashing so much himself, darting closer to slash at Riku then moving away again, it was like his feet only _barely_ touched the ground.

It seemed to go on so long that Riku almost wasn't sure if they'd just end up destroying each other. Both Ansem and Sora seemed to realize this at the same time, and after another clash, Ansem made Riku jump back, Sora mirroring her actions perfectly. Then, they circled again, the only sounds present shoes sliding along the floor, labored breaths, and the faint hum of machinery.

"You're a foolish boy,"Ansem said, pulling Riku's face into a grin. There was a cut on one of her cheeks, slowly dripping blood down her face, and the smile pulled it open further; a single, thin stream dripped into her mouth. Sora only frowned back, both the shocking blue of his eyes and the cool metal of his Keyblade trained steadily on Riku.

_Sora..._

_He'll be gone soon enough. I don't have to do it right away._

_Sora, you have to—_

_So be it._ With an invisible pull and a twist, Riku sprang forward, Ansem's black aura surrounding both her body and the dark Keyblade. At the same time, Sora made his own attack.

There was no sound of blades clashing this time because the teeth of Sora's Keyblade cut through Riku's armor, from her shoulder blade to her ribs. After a few seconds of silence, the dark Keyblade fell from Riku's hand to the floor with a clatter, and Ansem backed Riku away into another portal. Sora's hand was outstretched as he took a step towards Riku, but Ansem closed the portal before Sora could reach her.

_Sora beat you._

_Quiet._

_I told you he'd beat you._ Riku could feel every single injury and strain on her body, even in the darkness of the portal like this. Sora had definitely won that fight, and that was something Riku would remember.

 _Even now, nothing has changed._ Ansem was pulling more darkness to wrap around Riku, gaining strength again. At the keyhole, Sora was talking with the duck and the dog. The duck healed Sora, but all three of them were looking at the keyhole with grave expressions. _Did you think I would create a plan with any possibility of failure?_ Sora pointed his Keyblade as if to lock it, but the keyhole only sparked and rippled ominously.

"The keyhole's not complete yet," the dog said.

 _Sora's gonna fix it._ He'd beaten Ansem once, no matter how quickly Ansem was to insist on his perfect plan.

_Oh, I'm counting on exactly that, Riku._

"So what do we do?" Sora asked, putting his Keyblade away.

 _...What?_ Why did Ansem still sound so smug?

_Pay close attention, Riku._

"Maybe we've gotta go wake Kairi up," the dog answered. Sora turned from the keyhole, walking a little towards Kairi. If Riku was still trapped here, at least Sora and Kairi would be okay.

"I think you're right." Sora was mulling things over, his gaze moving from Kairi to the keyhole, then back again. "We need to free her heart..." he touched a hand to his chest, "...but how?" Then, Sora walked up to the dark Keyblade Ansem had left behind.

_...Sora?_

"A Keyblade that unlocks people's hearts..." Sora bent down and picked it up, examining it closely. "I wonder."

_Sora, what are you doing?_

Ansem laughed.

 _Only now do you begin to understand,_ he said. At the keyhole, the dog and duck were starting to realize the same thing as Riku.

"Sora..."

 _Sora, you can't!_ No matter what kind of effort Riku made, no matter how hard she pounded her fists, she was still shouting at a giant, invisible wall.

"Sora, hold on."

 _Sora, **please**_ …

Still holding the dark Keyblade, Sora smiled.

_Sora!_

It was the sort of smile he always gave, back on the islands. Riku had really liked that smile, with the beaming, carefree grin and the way his eyes turned up at the corners to match. It was a smile Riku had known practically her whole life, and she didn't know how, even in the midst of everything that had gone wrong, with the thing that was in his hands that very moment, he could still smile like that.

And then Sora took the dark Keyblade and stabbed it into his chest.

_**Sora! SORA!** _

There was a series of flashes, from both Sora and the dark keyblade. The Keyblade shone until it split into pieces, the lights traveling back to the chests of the princesses that had made it in the first place. Sora was glowing, too, the light surrounding him slowly spreading over his body, until Riku could barely look at him, the glare was so strong. Turning away would be worse, though.

 _And I told **you** , _Ansem commented, amused, _that he would not save you._

 _Sora..._ Riku pounded her fist against the wall one last time, but there wasn't any force behind it.

 _Oh, you can't be **that** distraught. _ He was still gathering darkness around Riku's body, using it to repair her armor and knit her flesh back together. _You're not even crying._ Riku had shut off her ability to cry so thoroughly since leaving the islands that if she let herself start now, she didn't think she would ever stop. _You're simply being freed from unnecessary attachments._

 _Sora..._ Riku could barely recognize her own voice, her throat was so choked.

_You'll let me handle things from now on, yes?_

It was then that Kairi woke up.

"Sora!" Kairi sat up, looked around, and gasped when she saw Sora, still glowing and falling backwards in a slow arc. She ran towards him, but by the time she could catch him, Sora had dissolved into little specks of light that drifted away. At the same time, the keyhole flashed and made a sound like a bell.

The noise Riku made then didn't form words.

"Sora, are you really..." Kairi shook her head, "no!" She tried grabbing at the specks, like they were fireflies she'd catch in a jar and tape back together, but Sora had already left. "I won't let you go!" She was gripping at nothing; the dog and duck walked up to her, exchanging their own laments and sorrowful expressions.

 _This is much more suitable, don't you think?_ Ansem raised Riku’s hands up and engulfed her body in another swirl of darkness that clung to every inch of her body, pulling at it, _mangling_ it, forcing it into strange shapes until they weren’t Riku’s hands at all but Ansem’s gloved ones instead. The rest of her body too, had been altered, subsumed into the form Ansem had taken from within her heart. She couldn’t feel Ansem close his hands into fists and lower them again; she was disconnected entirely, unable to feel anything physically at all. _One more detail to take care of._ He curled and unfurled a hand, stretching. _Then, **you** can be the princess, Riku, and I'll be your prince._

_You... you're..._

Ansem traveled back to the keyhole.

"You've awakened at last, Princess." He was probably smiling again. Kairi gasped and took a step backward. "The keyhole is complete, now." If this was the keyhole to the darkness, then it was only a matter of time before the Heartless started pouring through, and they would be commanded by the strongest, most dangerous Heartless of all: Ansem himself. "You've served your purpose, but now it's over."

Ansem was planning to get rid of Kairi, too, wasn't he? He was going to get rid of her because she wasn't useful to him anymore. He'd done it to Maleficent, he'd done it to Sora, and now he was going to do it to Kairi. The duck and dog had drawn their staff and shield respectively, but everyone present knew it wouldn't be any use. Was Ansem really going to get exactly what he wanted?

_Ansem… You're **nothing** like a prince._

Ever since she'd met him, he'd been lying to her. He'd told her it was alright to accept the darkness, to unlock the keyhole on the islands, and to join up with Maleficent. He'd talked about the Keyblade and travel to other worlds because it was what she was interested in, and he'd made himself out to be mysterious so she'd be eager to learn more.

And for what? To make Riku into an obedient little puppet? The thing Ansem wanted most was the power of Kingdom Hearts, but to get it, he needed a Keyblade and a body so he could use that Keyblade. He didn't care what happened to anyone else along the way, especially not Riku, and it would be an outright lie to call anything about the way he'd treated her gentlemanly.

 _You're just not much of a princess yet, Riku,_ Ansem laughed easily. _I'm only responding accordingly._

As horrible as Ansem was, Riku couldn't argue with what he'd said. In this very hall was a whole collection of girls who proved by their very existence how a proper princess should behave; it was one of the reasons Kairi had been unable to turn into a Heartless and Riku had gotten herself possessed by one. Someone who was pure wouldn't have given in to the darkness. Even girls like Wendy, Charlotte, and Tiana had refused to act like anything other than ladies.

 _...You're right_ , Riku realized. She made a _terrible_ princess. She refused to dress or speak like a lady, and had little to no interest in learning to do so. She'd been naïve about the nature of the darkness at first, but now, there was... not that much of her left that could be considered pure or innocent. She wasn't even good at sitting patiently and waiting to be rescued, despite knowing what would come of arguing with Ansem. Ansem had been trying to get Riku to act more like a princess, to wear the things he gave her and open her heart to him and submit to him and give her control over to him. It was just that once Riku discovered the truth about Ansem, she was really, really bad at doing—or wanting to do—any of those things. _You're right_ , she repeated. There was no getting around the fact that Riku simply didn't make a good princess.

 _There's a good girl_ , Ansem said, pleased. _Now, be quiet while I—_

 _I'm a **prince**_. And the glass wall shattered into thousands of pieces.

"What?" Ansem had frozen in place.

_And guess what?_

"No, that's impossible—!"

"I won't let you use me for this!"

"Riku!" Kairi gasped again and reached a hand forward, but Riku shook her head.

Riku wasn't sure how she'd done it, but she could see Kairi and Kairi could see her. She'd spent so long trying to get to Kairi, so many lonely, frustrated hours with Kairi missing or unresponsive. Now, it was Kairi who was free and reaching towards her, while Riku was trapped in her own body. Only in this moment, despite everything that had happened, did it truly feel as though they'd met again; the thought threatened to make Riku gasp in response. She wanted nothing more than to reach back.

But she couldn't. She'd gotten rid of the wall that had separated her from the world, but her form was insubstantial, now; Ansem was still the one with the body. It was taking all her effort just to hold him in place.

"Kairi, listen! You've gotta get out of here!" Kairi looked like she wanted to argue. Riku wondered if her face showed to Kairi any of the things that had happened, but even if it did, there wasn't anything Riku could do but buy time. "The Heartless are coming!" The only way Riku could protect Kairi right now was by letting her escape.

It took another long moment, but Kairi nodded. Then, she turned and ran, the duck and dog following close behind. With transparent lungs, Riku breathed a sigh of relief.

"You're going to be very sorry you did that, Riku." Ansem's voice was tight, only the barest layer of civility over a thick, roiling, bottomless rage. Already, he was straining forward from the spot Riku had rooted him to. "I've tried to be reasonable, but it seems I'm going to have to make this very clear to you." What a terrible joke. "If you don't cease this insolence and obey me, then I will _make_ you obey me, and it will much, much more painful for you than it has been so far."

"It doesn't matter anymore," Riku said, something that wasn't quite a laugh spilling out of her ethereal mouth. If she'd failed in protecting Sora from Ansem's schemes, then it was the least she could do to help Kairi get away.

"Oh, doesn't it, Riku?" She could feel him starting to move, though his efforts were still jerky and halting. "Were you under the impression that there wouldn't be consequences to your actions? Surely, you should know better than that, by now." He was starting to raise his voice, too, but only barely. Inch by inch, he walked forward. "I won't hold back like I've been doing so far." He was a liar, Riku reminded herself. Before anything else, he was a liar.

"There's nothing you can do to me that's worse than what's already happened." She felt his hand on her back again, but it didn't matter. She'd just watched Sora smile as he stuck a Keyblade in his own chest; nothing would ever be worse than that.

"We'll see about that." She wasn't sure exactly what he did, then, except that it started with nails clawing through the chambers of her heart, vicious and unrelenting in their fury, increasing at a reckless pace, until it was like thousands upon thousands of glass shards stabbing at her from every direction, over and over and over and over and over again. Riku had no idea how long it went on, only that it finally ended in everything going-pitch black.


	13. World of Darkness, part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is a door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The conclusion to KH1! This took a LOT longer than I thought it would, but I hope you guys enjoy the conclusion to this first part.
> 
> I also want to reassure you that I _am_ planning to continue this through CoM, Days, and KH2. It will have to be after another hiatus, though, as I am currently working on revamping Awakenings into an RPGMaker visual novel/game.
> 
> Beta, encouragement, and support by the amazing, wonderful, fantastic Sam.

Riku had absolutely no idea where she was, only that it was dark and she was completely alone. The agony she’d been in only moments before was quickly fading, her senses hazy and blurred like ink dissipating in water, and her connection to her surroundings tenuous at best.

She was glad not to be in front of the keyhole, though, and in her normal clothes once more. She probably wasn't even in Hollow Bastion anymore, judging by the darkness and the cold staleness of the air around her. The only thing that broke the uniform blackness was the long, gray, winding path on which she was currently kneeling, palms flat on the ground. Finally being away from Ansem was a good thing, too, but this place felt so empty. It was just like going through a portal, except that this was a world and a road that stretched on forever.

"Sora... Kairi..."

Slowly, she tried to stand up. More than anything else, she wanted to see them again. It seemed like only a short while ago they had still been planning their trip on the raft, back on the islands. They'd wanted to go to other worlds, but the situation had spiraled so wildly out of their control.

"I'm sorry..."

It was a situation that had culminated in Riku getting her body stolen, Sora stabbing himself and dissolving into a thousand tiny lights, and Kairi running for her life from the Heartless at her heels. It was a situation that Riku had caused.

This place was so cold and desolate. There was so much darkness, thick and stagnant, that Riku didn't know what to focus on.

"Is this the world of the dead?"

Had Ansem actually killed her, back in Hollow Bastion? She had been in so much pain, but it was gone, now that she’d been dumped into this tomb-like silence. Was that why the only thing breaking the monotony of this place was the gray road? Was this Riku's eternal punishment, to walk alone, forever? It was so stifling, it made her dizzy. She tried to keep her gaze on the place where the road met the black, but it didn't do her any good; she stumbled, palms smacking against the gray once more. It felt like she was going to thin out and disappear completely. If Riku disappeared, would she turn into little fireflies of light like Sora had? Was there even enough light left in her for that, or would she just turn into blue-black smoke that drifted away?

"...No. I can't disappear." Slowly, arduously, Riku stood up again, clutching at her chest with one hand. Saying it out loud had helped. "Not until I see Sora and Kairi again." She had to apologize to them. Even if they got mad at her, or if they refused to forgive her, that was alright; at least she'd get to see them one more time.

"Riku." What was that?

"Riku, can you hear me?" There was a voice! It was very faint, and the pitch was so high that she had to strain to catch it, but it was there. Riku looked around, but she didn't see any sign of who it could be.

"I'll be there soon." Again, Riku whipped her head around, but the only things she could see were the black and the gray.

"Hello?" Riku called. "Who's there?" She had absolutely no idea who it could be. The identity of the other person could be anyone, really. Riku didn't want to be in this dead world by herself, but she had no idea if she'd just encountered a friend or foe. Things hadn't exactly gone well the last time she'd trusted a stranger at face value, so caution was probably better this time.

"Someone with a Keyblade," the voice answered. "I found the Keyblade for this side." This side? What did that mean? Riku whipped her head around, trying to find a source for the voice, but again to no avail. "I've been trying to talk to you all along, but I was stopped by the darkness covering your heart."

There had been someone trying to talk to her? Someone who wasn't Ansem or Maleficent? All this time, Riku had considered herself to be alone; was there really someone who'd been trying to help this whole time? Riku had told herself to be cautious, but... she had a feeling this person was telling the truth. With Ansem and Maleficent, there had been an air of strangeness, but with this person - even as a high, distant voice - Riku only felt warmth. It was the same kind of warmth that a Keyblade had, and it was for this reason that Riku decided the voice was telling the truth.

"I don't know who you are..." Riku responded slowly, "but do you know what happened to me?"

"Your heart overcame the darkness," the voice said, "but you couldn't take back your body." So Riku had broken Ansem's hold over her, hopefully buying enough time for Kairi to get away, but then Ansem had kicked her out entirely. Riku definitely didn't want to be anywhere near Ansem ever again, but she didn't want him to get away with just taking her body, either. "Only your heart was left behind, in this dark side where stolen hearts gather." That explained why everything felt so insubstantial here, though it was still a bit unclear where exactly 'here' was. She looked down the gray road as far as she could, but there was still no physical sign of the person she was talking to, only a voice.

"What should I do?" Was there a chance that she could get her body back, or was it gone forever? Could she still fight, or was it up to the high voice with the other Keyblade, now? Was it possible to get out of this place, to see Sora and Kairi again?

"Soon, the door of darkness will appear." The door to Kingdom Hearts? Did that mean Ansem was going to succeed? "It's a door through which we cannot pass. To close it, you need two keys and two hearts." But _this_ person was clearly trying to stop Ansem, if they'd come here to get a Keyblade other than the one Sora'd had. But if Hollow Bastion and its occupants were on one side of the door, and Riku and the distant voice were on the other side... She still didn't know exactly what it meant, but Riku was starting to get a clearer picture of where she was. "Maybe you've come here for that purpose, too. Maybe it was fate."

"Fate, huh?" Riku couldn't decide if that was comforting or distressing, but she also wasn't sure if something like fate was supposed to be either of those things. "You know everything, don't you?" She almost smiled; it was a weird feeling, to somehow know that this person _was_ different from Ansem and Maleficent. It was... reassuring. "If that's true, can you tell me one more thing?" There was a short silence while Riku readied herself to ask what she'd been wondering this whole time. Hopefully, the voice was listening. "Are Sora and Kairi alright?"

"You should be able to answer that yourself, with your heart." Riku hadn't tried that. It sounded like something Sora would do, actually, but out of the two of them, Riku was pretty sure that Sora had been more right, lately. Maybe that meant this was the perfect way to reach him. "How you perceive your friends is dependent on your _own_ heart." Well... it couldn't hurt to try, right? She wanted so badly to know where Sora was, or even just how he was doing, so she closed her eyes and concentrated.

 _Sora?_ It was like he was running, both somewhere in the black and wherever he actually was. Everything was slowed down, like a dream, but it felt real, like he really was there. His ridiculously spiky hair was bouncing with every step he took, just like when they'd race each other, back on the islands. This time, though, he wasn't trying to run past her; he was running _towards_ her. When he got close enough, Riku could see the expression on his face.

Sora was _smiling_. It was the same way he always smiled. He was exactly the same as he'd always been.

"Thanks," Riku said, and when she opened her eyes again, she started walking down the gray road with a smile of her own.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It was some time before Riku found the source of that high, distant voice.

"So, Riku, how are Sora and Kairi?" Riku blinked as she looked at the person who'd spoken, taking in his strange appearance, but quickly recovered.

"They're fine," she responded, smiling.

"That's awfully good to hear. Donald and Goofy must be doing okay, too." Those two were the duck and the dog, right? The last pieces of the puzzle clicked together.

"You're the King they were talking about, aren't you?"

"My name's Mickey," the King, said, nodding. He also happened to be a mouse, dressed in red and yellow, with big, black ears that only came up to Riku's waist, but he was definitely a king first.

"It's nice to meet you, Your Majesty," Riku bowed.

"Gosh, you don't have to be so formal. I'm helping fight, just like everyone else." Even this close, his voice was still high-pitched. When Riku straightened back up again, the King was looking on her kindly, black eyes twinkling. She got the impression that he liked doing things like fighting or traveling more than sitting in a palace and ruling. There was something about him that was very old, it was true, but he didn't seem like the sort of person who let his age get in the way of understanding someone younger.

"Alright, Your Majesty," Riku replied, sending back a tentative smile of her own. The King sighed, but he was still smiling, so maybe he'd expected that. "Do you know where the door's gonna be?"

"Somewhere along this road, probably." Riku nodded, and they both continued down the gray path. "I've been in here for a while, so I'm a little behind on news. Do ya think you could tell me what's been goin' on?" Riku hesitated for a moment, thinking about how embarrassing some of the things she was about to say would sound, but if the King was going to help, then she should just go ahead and tell him anyway.

"...Okay," she said. The King gave her another encouraging smile, and with a deep breath, Riku started telling him about the fighting and the Heartless.

It became apparent soon after Riku started explaining things that she didn't know much about what Sora, Donald, and Goofy had been doing, so she just gave as many details as she could. The King seemed to know who Maleficent was, though, and took in Riku's explanations of the witch's plans - and her own complicity in them - with a frown. He grew even more serious when Riku started explaining about Ansem, but even when Riku recounted what had happened in Hollow Bastion, the King seemed more upset about the events than at Riku herself.

"Riku, I want to show you something." They'd been walking for some time now, but while there was still the gray surrounded by the black, little hills and rock formations were starting to become barely visible, in the distance. Every once in a while, Riku would see a flash of yellow eyes, but they were always gone when she turned her head to look.

"What is it, Your Majesty?" Riku couldn't help biting her lip a little. The King had mostly been giving words of acknowledgment, only asking a few questions here and there for clarification. She had started skimming over some of the details once she started talking about Ansem and the fighting in Hollow Bastion, too embarrassed to look the King in the eye, but he seemed to understand all the things she wasn't saying outright, nonetheless.

"There's some Heartless that have been followin' us for a while." Riku scanned their surroundings again, and a few pairs of golden eyes flickered out of sight from the edges of her vision.

"I know." The King nodded in approval. Had he been hoping she'd noticed? "Was that what you wanted to show me?"

"No, but we need to handle them first. They won't let us walk through their territory much longer."

"This is the world of darkness, right?" Riku asked. "Inside Kingdom Hearts?"

"Not exactly." The King stopped, looking around, and Riku paused with him. "Get ready." He summoned a Keyblade to his hand, and Riku was struck by how similar it was to Sora's Keyblade, yet at the same time completely opposite it. There wasn't time to ask about it, however, because at the same time, a multitude of golden eyes flickered open around them. There were many more than Riku had thought were following them, and she called Soul Eater to her own hand, thankful that she still had _some_ sort of weapon.

When the Heartless sprung, the King flew into action. Riku had wondered if his short stature would make fighting difficult, but the King made up for it with his acrobatic maneuvers, jumping and flipping in the air, a tiny whirlwind of black and red. His Keyblade, with its gold blade and silver guard an inverse of Sora's, struck out at the Heartless with quick flashes, illuminating the area all around them. There were a lot of Heartless attacking the two of them, all sinewy shapes and long antennae, but Riku could hold her own against the ones the King wasn't taking care of. It took a while, due to the sheer number, but eventually, Riku and the King defeated all the Heartless attacking them.

"You never know when they're gonna show up," the King said, after it was over. "Are you hurt anywhere, Riku?" He still had his Keyblade out, presumably for magic. Even after the Heartless were gone, it still seemed like there was a slight haze from his flashy attacks.

"I'm fine," she responded, Soul Eater already dismissed. She had a couple scratches here and there, but nothing serious enough for a healing spell. The King put his Keyblade away. Riku wondered if the blade's similarity to Sora's had something to do with the fact that it was from the other side of the door. "What was it you wanted to show me?"

"Look over there," the King said, pointing off into the distance. Riku followed his gaze to a set of hills and rocks; it was easier to see them, due to the haze still present from the battle, and they seemed to go on forever.

"At the hills?" They seemed similar enough to other hills the two of them had passed as they walked. Was it normal for the glare from a Keyblade to last this long?

" _Behind_ the hills," the King insisted. Riku rubbed at her eyes and tried to squint past the rock formations. After a few moments, she realized it wasn't the area immediately around her and the King that was illuminating the hills. Past all the gray and the black and the now-absent gold, there was a pale, steady light radiating outward. " _That's_ Kingdom Hearts." It was probably warm.

"Your Majesty, it's... it's..." Riku’s breath caught in her throat, her chest aching to pull her forward, to immerse herself completely in the light. "...Wow." Riku wasn't really sure how long she spent looking at it, but when she turned back to the King, he was smiling patiently up at her.

"Even in the darkest place, there's still some light." Riku was still pretty speechless, and she wasn't sure for a second if she was going to start crying, so she just nodded. The King let her have another few seconds to get herself under control, and then nodded back. "Seems like we've still got a ways to go before we reach the door, though."

"I guess we should keep walking," Riku responded, and then they set off again.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The King had apparently noticed Riku's surprise regarding his Keyblade, and when he asked her about it, she told him how it looked compared to Sora's. That made the King start explaining what keychains were, and how attaching different ones changed a Keyblade's characteristics. If he noticed how careful Riku was about what questions she asked or where she'd gotten the information she'd already learned, he didn't comment on it. When he sensed Riku wanted to talk about something else, he started describing his home world, and Riku shared what the islands had been like in return. Talking was a good way to pass the time while they traveled, when they weren't busy being attacked by Heartless, and it kept Riku from worrying constantly about Sora and Kairi.

"That means we've got something else in common," the King said brightly. He'd just finished sharing stories with Riku about some of the things he'd done before he was crowned, and sure enough, she got the idea that the King wasn't the stuffy type of royal.

"You've been on a lot of adventures, haven't you?" Riku guessed. She figured it might be rude to imply he'd been mischievous, but the King laughed as if he knew what she was suggesting anyway. She also thought that he was more similar in personality to Sora than to herself, but she didn't mention that because she wanted to accept the King's statement as it had been intended.

"I used to get in trouble a lot," the King replied, only a little bit sheepish, "but everything always turned out alright in the end. That's the important part."

"Fair enough." It was also nice to hear reassurances without feeling like she'd been put on the spot. The King was so good at it that Riku was starting to cautiously hope that maybe things would be alright with Sora and Kairi after all. Even if it had been really bad before, nothing was over yet. It had felt like Riku had been stuck at the bottom of the ocean before, the weight of all the darkness around her pressing down and compacting her into a tiny ball on the seafloor, but now, maybe she was starting to rise back up to the surface. If the King was right - and he had no reason to be wrong - then even this long walk had to end. The King was here, Kingdom Hearts was visible in the long distance, and Sora and Kairi were on the other side of the door. That was where she was going.

"Somethin' on your mind?" the King prodded. Riku blinked, then looked back down at him; he was giving her that patient gaze again. Had she been lost in her thoughts too long?

"Oh, I... um..." She wasn't quite sure how to explain her feelings, given how tentative her optimism was still, but she didn’t want him to think she'd been ignoring him, either. "Sorry, I just..." she trailed off.

"I'll stop talkin' and listen to whatever you've got to say, Riku, if you think it'll help." It made her feel better, to know he was willing to do that, so she took a breath and tried sorting out her thoughts.

"I really want to see Sora and Kairi again," Riku said, turning her head back towards the gray road. "I need to apologize, for a lot of things," half of which she hadn't said aloud to the King, "but I want us all to be together again." It would be worth it.

"I'm sure you'll find a way to see then again," the King said.

If Riku closed her eyes, it was almost like she was back on the islands again. It was hard, when she was stuck in a place with so much darkness, but she still remembered the smell of the salt on the waves, those flowers that always grew near the waterfall, the fruit that hung from the Paopu tree. She remembered the warm rains and cool breezes. She'd been so bored with the place before she left, but now, she'd do any number of silly little things, if Sora and Kairi were there. The other two could pretend to help with the raft while Riku did all the work, or the three of them could team up and beat the other kids in some swimming game, or they could just sit on the Paopu tree and talk about nothing at all. She would sit and listen to Kairi tell her about girly things, even if she didn't agree, or even understand the point. She'd agree to race with Sora, even though he'd probably beat her now, and... that was all okay, she realized.

It really was okay. Riku didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It came out as something of a sigh. Maybe if she just said that, then Sora would understand it, too.

"Riku..." When she opened her eyes again, the King was looking at her, mouth open in shock. "Your hands..." When Riku brought them up to her face, they were transparent again. There was a breeze, too, and Riku's hair was blowing in her face, but the King didn't seem to be affected by it at all.

"What's happening?" Riku squeezed her hands tight and opened them again, but they were still insubstantial. "No, I have to-!" She couldn't disappear now! She still had to-

That was when she saw Sora again, but he wasn't just an image or a memory this time; he was really there, right in front of her. Riku wasn't sure how she knew this, but she was absolutely certain it was the truth. He didn't seem to notice she was there, though, and something seemed to be wrong.

He was falling. It was black all around, and from behind, Riku could feel the oppressive weight of a darkness that wanted to destroy everything in sight. Sora looked so small and alone against such a massive enemy. He was covered in wounds. If he'd been fighting, why did it look like he was losing? All the things Riku'd thought she should say flew out of her head. She couldn't even tell him about the race, like she'd planned, even if she meant more than one thing by it. Everything else seemed so unimportant compared to what was happening right now. She just...

"C'mon, Sora. Giving up already?" She just wanted him to feel better. She didn't want him to have to be all by himself. She wanted him to remember, so she said it the same way she'd always said it. "I thought you were stronger than that."

And then, in a flash and a gasp, she saw Sora _fly_. He looked... like himself again.

"-ku! Riku!" All it took was a single blink, and the King was standing in front of her again. "Riku?"

"I saw him!" Riku said, grinning.

"What? Saw who? You just vanished." The King was passing his gaze over her worriedly.

"I saw Sora," Riku explained. "He was flying, he was..." He was glowing, like a supernova of pixie dust, as he shot into the air, the corona of white-gold not blinding, but like he was on fire from within. She was pretty sure it was the most amazing thing she'd ever seen. "I'm... I'm okay, I think." She felt fine, but looked back down at her hands just to be sure. Everything was solid again, or at least not transparent anymore. She still didn't have her body, but she didn't think she was in danger of disappearing anymore.

"Are ya sure?"

"Uh huh." That seemed to pacify the King enough that his expression smoothed out again. "Sora's still fighting. We need to hurry and get to the door soon."

"Then we shouldn't waste any time," the King said. It was a huge relief to know that he was willing to accept what she'd said, even if it sounded crazy. With another smile back at him, Riku started running down the gray path, and the King soon met her pace.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The further they ran, the more Heartless started to appear. At first, they stayed in the hills, but they soon began stalking them from the sides of the road, the distance between Riku, the King, and their followers growing ever shorter. There wasn't time to fight them all, so Riku and the King just kept going, hoping to reach the door before the situation became completely out of control. When the Heartless began to spill over onto the road, they just defeated them as quickly as they could before continuing.

It was some time before Riku realized the Heartless were trying to get to the same place she and the King were.

"The Heartless are trying to get to the door, too, aren't they?" she asked

"That's why we've gotta close it as soon as possible."

As if speaking of it out loud had summoned it, Riku finally saw a tall, white shape in the distance.

"Your Majesty! Look!" It was only a little farther down the road. "The door!" Both she and the King began running even faster than before, but they couldn't get far. There were more Heartless than ever before, and they surged towards the door in great packs, almost like a swarm. What should have taken only a minute or two was probably going to take much longer.

"I'll take care of the Heartless!" the King shouted back. "Riku, you focus on reaching the door and getting it closed!" He began cutting into the Heartless once more, jumping and spinning every which way.

"But-" The King was powerful, it was true, but could even he handle this many by himself?

"The Heartless won't leave us alone until the door's been closed! Go!" Riku figured that if the King was right, then the best way to help was to just listen. She didn't like feeling she was making a run for the door and leaving the King with all the hard work, but she also had to admit it was the best decision.

Not that her task was any easier for merely trying to get past Heartless rather than taking the time to destroy them completely. While a great number of Heartless were starting to gather around the King and his flashy Keyblade attacks, most of them were still surging towards the door. Whenever Riku got within a certain distance of a Heartless, it would turn and strike at her, and every second she delayed by pushing it away felt like another chance for all the darkness inside this world to escape and sweep over everything like a giant, black tidal wave.

This worry became an immediate threat when the giant, white doors cracked open. Everything that wasn't the door went pitch-black; even the King and his Keyblade were too far away for their flashing to be visible. After that, it didn't matter how many Heartless Riku pushed away from her because she didn't have the time to do even that. It felt like the night the islands were destroyed, with everything electrified and whipping around, tendrils far darker than anything else reaching and straining for the door just as Riku was. She didn't know how many times she'd been cut trying to reach the door, only that she couldn't stop pushing forward. Someone was shouting, and Riku had no idea if it was her or not.

Then, like a giant inhale, everything seemed to pause. For a split second, it was completely silent, and in the next moment, with the sound of a bell far in the distance, everything was bathed in light. It seared through the darkness and through Riku, Heartless screaming silently as they disintegrated, and when everything else dissolved away, Riku found her skin underneath.

Her own skin. _Hers_. From then on, she only had to run the now-empty space up to the door.

"Come on!" She... she recognized that voice. That was _Sora's_  voice.

"Stop staring and keep pushing!" Riku broke into a run again towards the door. Sora was _right there_. She could really see him again!

"But the Heartless..." Sora, Donald, and Goofy were talking to each other, right on the other side of the door. Riku looked over her shoulder, and sure enough, the Heartless who'd been too far away to be caught by the light were now starting to move forward. There probably wasn't going to be another flash like that anytime soon, and she had no idea where the King was, so she had to get there before she got stuck.

"Hurry up!" They were talking to each other, but Riku pushed herself to move as quickly as she could. She was _so close_.

"It's so heavy..." Sora was on the other side of the door, trying to close it. The King had said that if the door wasn't closed, then all the darkness in this world would escape, so the door had to be closed. "I can't..."

Sora was right in front of her, and the darkness was all around Riku. If she reached out her hand to him, like when the islands had been destroyed, would he grab it this time? He probably would. He probably knew where Kairi was, too. Then, no matter what had happened, they wouldn't have to be separated again.

But the door had to be closed.

"Don't give up!" Riku shouted, and began pulling it shut from her side, the only purchase for her fingers the long edge of the door itself. No matter how tempting it was, she knew it was her job to stay on this side. The feeling of wanting to reach out only intensified when Sora poked his head out to look back at her open-mouthed, so she countered it by pulling harder. "We can close it together!"

Sora looked beat-up, but if he was still standing - and if Riku had finally gotten her body back - then that meant he'd defeated Ansem. There was only one thing more they needed to do. She needed him to agree because if he asked her to step through, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to refuse or not.

It took another moment they didn't really have, while they just stared at each other, but after it passed, Sora nodded and started pushing once more.

It started closing faster with both of them there, but the door was still many times taller than Riku had thought possible and incredibly heavy. The Heartless had been driven back by the light before, but Riku could hear them start to creep up behind her, slowly but surely. Focusing on shutting the door was keeping Riku from reaching towards Sora. She couldn’t let the sounds of the Heartless closing in distract her. She threw her weight into pulling on the door, a new sense of urgency fueling her.

"It's hopeless!" Donald cried. Unlike with Sora, Riku didn't know how to reassure Donald and Goofy so they’d push harder. The Heartless' scuffling was growing closer every second. Riku couldn't afford to slow down before the door was closed, though. She’d just have to finish the job she started, then at least she could keep the darkness of this world from reaching Sora and the Realm of light.

Suddenly, the scuffling and golden eyes fixed on Riku's back were replaced by a high-pitched yell and flashes that permeated the blackness all around her.

"Your Majesty!" Now, there were three heads peeking into Riku's side of the door. Riku looked back to see that the King had finally caught up, Keyblade still glowing from his attacks. All the Heartless that had been there only moments before were gone.

"Now, let's close this door for good!" the King shouted. Riku understood and withdrew her fingers to allow the gap to narrow the rest of the way. Sora brought his gaze from the King back to her just in time to notice the movement, and then he hesitated.

"Close it, hurry!" Donald shouted. Riku had no idea what to say.

"But..." Sora was just staring at her. Riku knew she had to convince him to keep pushing, somehow, but she didn't know what to do about that face he was giving her. She still hadn't apologized to him yet.

"Don't worry," the King said. Riku realized that she'd raised her hand up to the door again. "There will always be a door to the light." She didn't look away from Sora, but she deliberately brought her hand back down.

"Sora, you can trust King Mickey," Goofy said.

"You need to lock it," Riku insisted, keeping her gaze fixed. Then she smiled because, well... it was nice to know that Sora was willing to save her, even after all the horrible things she'd done, but Riku would make it through. Sora must have understood that because he finally nodded again.

"Donald, Goofy, thank you," the King said. That was Riku's cue that it was time.

“Hey, Sora.” Riku kept her breathing as even as she could. She still needed to apologize to Sora, but if she'd have to wait to see him and Kairi a little longer, then she wanted to make sure that they’d be okay while she was gone.

Sora was the only one listening to her right now, since Donald and Goofy were talking with the King, but she would have said it the same way no matter who else was there. It wouldn't be right to say it any other way.

"Take care of her." Sora held her gaze and nodded. Maybe he understood.

Riku made sure to keep smiling until the door shut all the way. The King raised his Keyblade, and light began to gather at the tip. Still only a few inches from where Riku was standing, the tall, white door shone and glittered before dissolving into thin air with a click.

Riku spent another moment staring at the place where the door had been, her chest rising and falling in large gulps. Now, an entire realm separated her from Sora and Kairi. Around her were the gray path, the black hills, and the pale light of Kingdom Hearts in the distance. Most of the Heartless had disappeared back into the shadows, now that the door was gone. Riku braced herself to get rid of the remaining creatures, but they were easily dispatched by the King as he made his way to her. It was quiet, now, and the King was looking at her expectantly.

No matter how Riku looked at it, there was no way of knowing how far along the gray road the next door would be. She knew that nothing would be completely right until she was reunited with Sora and Kairi. She also knew that a lot of terrible things had occurred, but she refused to let anything like that happen ever again. When she thought about all this, she decided that there was only one thing to do.

"Well," Riku said, looking down the long, gray road, "let's get going." She took a step forward and started walking.


End file.
